Florida leaders are ripping into the decision to leave Florida State University out of this year's College Football Playoff with some demanding answers about the snub.
FSU is the first undefeated Power 5 conference champion to be left out of the playoff or its predecessor in the past 25 years. The selection committee — after ranking FSU 4th a week ago — instead jumped both Texas and Alabama ahead of the Seminoles even though those two teams had a loss this season.
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott said he was "infuriated" by the "illogical" decision and said, "I'll be demanding the committee answer as to how this decision was made and what led to this outcome."
U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, who went to FSU, called the committee "trash," while Rep. Jared Moskowitz said in a post on X that he would be circulating a letter and will file a resolution condemning the decision to leave FSU out of the playoffs.
"This decision is about TV money, a corrupt decision for college athletics," Moskowitz said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis — who has talked recently about how his young children have become FSU fans — put out a milder statement in response. DeSantis said "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." Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez reposted DeSantis' statement.
Other Florida politicians who weighed in included Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, an FSU alumnus who called the decision "shameful."
FSU has gone 13-0 this season including wins over two Southeastern Conference teams — LSU and Florida — and won the Atlantic Coast Conference championship on Saturday evening with their third-string quarterback. FSU's first-string quarterback, Jordan Travis, suffered a gruesome injury in November and the team's second-string quarterback was held out because he got a concussion during the win over the Gators.
The head of the playoff committee defended the decision to bypass FSU by contending that the team wasn't as good as it previously was following the loss of Travis — a somewhat head-scratching comment given FSU was ranked fourth a week earlier after beating UF with Tate Rodemaker.
FSU Coach MIke Norvell and other FSU officials eviscerated the logic used to keep the Seminoles out of the playoffs.
"I am disgusted and infuriated with the committee's decision today to have what was earned on the field taken away because a small group of people decided they knew better than the results of the games," Norvell said in a statement. "What is the point of playing games? Do you tell players it is okay to quit if someone goes down? Do you not play a senior on Senior Day for fear of injury? Where is the motivation to schedule challenging non-conference games?"
FSU Athletic Director Micheal Alford said the decision destroys the legitimacy of the playoff.
"For many of us, today's decision by the committee has forever damaged the credibility of the institution that is the College Football Playoff," Alford said. "And, saddest of all, it was self-inflicted. They chose predictive competitiveness over proven performance; subjectivity over fact. They have become a committee of prognosticators. They have abandoned their responsibility by discarding their purpose — to evaluate performance on the field."
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