TALLAHASSEE, FL (352today.com) – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced he’s setting aside $1 million in the state’s budget for a potential lawsuit against the College Football Playoff Committee after the group left out Florida State University from the playoffs.
Sunday, the committee announced that Michigan, Washington, Texas, and Alabama had been awarded the four spots in the playoffs, excluding the Florida State Seminoles who went undefeated all season and won the ACC Championship.
The controversial decision has sparked a lot of conversation as to whether the committee made the correct decision and motives behind it. It even caused lots of anger and disappointment within the football community, fans, and lawmakers.
In a news conference discussing the state’s budget Tuesday, DeSantis addressed the playoff committee’s decision and floated the notion of possible legal action.
“I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that we had one of our schools – Florida State – go undefeated this year and win the conference championship, and they earned a spot in the college football playoffs and they were excluded from that and I think that is something that is very, very controversial,” said DeSantis.
He added that he’s not sure what goes into the decision-making process and if anything can be done prior to the playoffs, but that he is setting aside funds for any costs that could arise with the school taking legal action.
“What we decided to do, we’re setting aside a million dollars for any litigation expenses that may become 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,” said DeSantis.
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DeSantis acknowledged that while he’s not a graduate of any Florida college, living in Tallahassee has made his family diehard Seminole fans.
“My first-grader, my fifth-grader and my preschooler… they are all Noles and they are big-time fans and they do the tomahawk chop and they were not happy,” DeSantis said.
Florida State is the first unbeaten Power Five conference champion to be excluded from the playoffs. Much of the defense of the decision has centered around the fact that FSU star quarterback Jordan Travis suffered a season-ending injury in a game against the University of North Alabama.
The selection committee’s chairman Boo Corrigan who also the athletic director at North Carolina State defended the decision pointing to the loss of the team’s QB.
“Florida State is a different team than they were through the first 11 weeks,” explained Corrigan.
The committee is advised to base its decision off of what teams are looking like going into the playoff and Corrigan said the committee believed that the Seminoles without Travis did not rank among the top four.
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