Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said he has $1 million ready for any lawsuits around the decision to keep Florida State University out of the college football playoff, leaping headlong into a sports debate that’s collided with the 2024 presidential race.
Mr. DeSantis announced the funds in a budget speech one day after his chief GOP rival, former President Donald Trump, accused him of failing to lobby on FSU’s behalf.
And the governor’s defending Tallahassee’s Seminoles before a pivotal debate Wednesday against Republican opponents at the University of Alabama — the very school that edged out the FSU Seminoles to reach the final four.
“We’re setting aside a million dollars for any litigation expenses that may [come] as a result of this really, really poor decision by the college football playoffs to exclude an undefeated team who won a big Power Five conference championship,” Mr. DeSantis said in a news conference from the Marco Island Middle School in southwest Florida.
FSU went 13-0 this season but was left out of the playoff while two teams with one loss — Alabama and the University of Texas — were accepted in a Sunday selection show alongside the undefeated University of Michigan and the University of Washington.
The snub set off a fiery round of sports punditry and even reached the halls of Congress.
Florida politicians are furious, with Republican Sen. Rick Scott demanding formal answers from the selection committee chairman. He said the decision would cause both heartache and financial losses at FSU.
“Beyond the benefit to the university and its athletic program, the Committee’s decision will also likely have profound impacts on the future earnings and opportunities for the players,” Mr. Scott wrote to Selection Committee Chairman Boo Corrigan.
The senator demanded notes and written communications about the committee’s decision-making and ranking procedures.
Mr. DeSantis’s outcry is multi-faceted. He is defending FSU as governor, a 2024 contender and as a dad whose kids have adopted FSU as their team while they live in the governor’s mansion.
“They are all Noles, and they are big-time fans, and they do the tomahawk chop and they were not happy on Sunday when Florida State was left out,” Mr. DeSantis said. “So, it’s unfortunate we have to do that, but we are going to put aside $1 million and let the chips fall where they may on that.”
Mr. Trump, who famously moved from New York to Florida during his presidency, held a nearly 40-point lead over the governor in a November poll of likely Florida GOP voters. He twisted the knife on Monday, saying Mr. DeSantis failed to lobby hard enough for FSU.
“Lets blame DeSanctimonious!!!” he wrote on Truth Social.
Mr. DeSantis scoffed at the criticism during his budget event Tuesday and accused Mr. Trump of hiding behind his keyboard while his GOP rivals debate before voters.
The ex-president will be absent from Tuscaloosa, leaving Mr. DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy on the stage Wednesday night.
“Why Donald Trump refuses to debate is just beyond me,” Mr. DeSantis said. “If you’re doing so well, you should want to go up there and make your case. I think voters deserve to hear from candidates as to why they should be the nominee.”
Susan MacManus, a professor emerita at the University of South Florida, said she doesn’t think Mr. DeSantis’s pledge to support FSU litigation will move the electorate in a major way. Still, it was an easy way to cater to Floridians.
“This is definitely a football state and a lot of people are really tuned into this whole issue of how they did their playoff,” she said. “There’s a lot of people who don’t like Alabama or Texas — either one.”
In the Senate, Mr. Scott said the committee appeared to factor a season-ending injury to FSU quarterback Jordan Travis in their decision, even though the injury did not affect the previous week’s rankings and FSU beat a highly ranked Louisville team without Mr. Travis.
“The main issue is the justified perception of an unfair system that has wrongly disregarded the known strengths of an undefeated team over the speculated impact of losing a single player,” Mr. Scott wrote.
Football pundits say the committee had an impossible situation in which it confronted a plethora of deserving teams and chose what it thought were the four best teams instead of automatically admitting FSU.
That hasn’t persuaded Florida’s congressional delegation.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, Florida Democrat, said he is drafting a resolution condemning the NCAA over the “corrupt decision,” while Rep. Byron Donalds, Florida Republican, tweeted: “The CFP committee is trash!”
Mr. DeSantis said Florida schools are outperforming many colleges in the nation.
“I like those academic rankings,” he said, “I just want the football rankings to match them.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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