TALLAHASSEE, FL (352today.com) – Florida’s Attorney General (AG) is demanding answers from the College Football Playoff (CFP) Selection Committee regarding the decision that excluded Florida State University from the championship playoffs.

On Tuesday, AG Ashley Moody said she’s taking steps to investigate the CFP’s ‘secretive selection process’ and examine if the Committee was involved in any anticompetitive conduct.

Moody said her office’s Antitrust Division is sending a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) to the Committee for more information about the nature of possible contracts, conspiracies in restraint of trade or monopolization of trade and commerce relating to anticompetitive effects of the CFP.

“I’m a lifelong Gator, but I’m also the Florida Attorney General, and I know injustice when I see it,” said Moody. “No rational person or college football fan can look at this situation and not question the result. The NCAA, conferences, and the College Football Playoff Committee are subject to antitrust laws.”

The 2023 FSU Seminoles went undefeated and won the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Since the beginning of the Bowl Championship Series in 1998, the Seminoles are the first undefeated Power Five team to be denied the opportunity to play for the national championship over teams with a loss.

“The Committee’s decision reeks of partiality, so we are demanding answers—not only for FSU, but for all schools, teams and fans of college football,” said Moody. “In Florida, merit matters. If it’s attention they were looking for, the Committee certainly has our attention now.”

The AG’s office said FSU’s omission in the CFP will cost the school and the ACC millions of dollars.

Moody says the CID seeks multiple communications, including, but not limited to:

  • All communications relating to deliberations to or from the SEC, ACC, NCAA, ESPN, Group of Five conferences, Power Five conferences or any other person relating to the deliberations
  • All documents relating to public statements relating to the deliberations, including media talking points and interview notes
  • Documents relating to restrictions of the Conferences against having alternate playoff schedules
  • Documents showing compensation of members in 2023
  • Documents sufficient to show all recusals of Committee members from deliberations
  • The Committee’s standards relating to ethics and conflicts of interest

The CID also seeks to uncover “all individual votes and vote tallies by members in the deliberations, all persons who received access to any votes, all persons present during any vote and any individual knowledgeable about the administration or use of the software or program used to record or tally votes.”

To view the CID, click here.