The snubbing of Florida State University’s football team from the college football playoff on Sunday has gone political, with Donald Trump saying disgruntled fans should blame Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for the team being left out of the final four.
In a post to Truth Social, the former president said FSU was “treated very badly” by the playoff’s selection committee, which voted to allow two one-loss teams—the University of Texas and University of Alabama—in over the undefeated FSU.
“(FSU) become the first Power Five team to be left out of the College Football Playoffs,” Trump wrote, omitting that FSU is the first undefeated power-five team to be left out. “Really bad lobbying effort…Lets blame DeSanctimonious!!!”
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Right-wing influencers spread baseless conspiracies over the weekend that FSU was nixed from the final four as punishment for DeSantis, who lives in Tallahassee where FSU is located, because of his political strife with Disney, which owns ABC and the rights to the college football playoff games.
DeSantis addressed the snubbing, which was revealed in a selection show aired by ESPN on Sunday afternoon, by saying the committee “ignored” FSU’s accomplishments.
“What we learned today is that you can go undefeated and win your conference championship game, but the College Football Playoff committee will ignore these results,” he wrote.
FSU is is now the first undefeated team from a power-five conference to not have a chance to compete for the National Championship in favor of a non-undefeated team in the last 25 years. The loss of FSU’s starting quarterback to injury last month—paired with strong résumés from other teams—has been cited as the likely reason they were left on the outside looking in.
Some Florida lawmakers are mulling whether legislation should be drafted to protest FSU not making the playoff, Front Office Sports reported Sunday, citing a source.
The timing of the playoff committee’s announcement came just days before the next GOP presidential debate, which is slated to occur Wednesday at the University of Alabama—the very school the committee determined bested FSU for the final playoff spot.
