Florida's Governor is putting the state's top college football programs on notice.
During a press conference at the Jacksonville Classical Academy, Gov. Ron DeSantis again made the case that the Florida Gators, the Miami Hurricanes and even the Florida State Seminoles are leaving something to be desired when it comes to the gridiron.
"I want to see us do well in college football again. I know Florida State had a good year until that last game. I know the Gators didn't do as good and Miami's now, but, I mean, I'd like to get them all back," DeSantis said.
The Governor suggested an erosion of amateurism in sports, one ironically driven by name, image and likeness (NIL) endorsement schemes such as that he made law is to blame for the diminished status of Florida's historical top programs.
"I think this whole NIL may need some guardrails and the transferring has gotten out of hand. You know, transferring once? Fine, you shouldn't have to sit out. But to just treat it like a free agency where you don't know who's going to come back each year, I think that's diluted college sports."
DeSantis has griped about student athletes having too much leverage and about Florida programs in recent months on numerous occasions, of course.
"Football's changed where you have, like, you get paid for name, image and likeness and stuff, which we supported in Florida. If people are going to make money off you, like, whatever. But now it's like, they sit out the bowl games and they do all this other stuff and a lot of Florida State's players didn't even play. We've got to do something about that. I don't know if that's the right thing," DeSantis said in Waukee, Iowa during his failed presidential campaign.
Prior to FSU's 60-point loss during bowl season, DeSantis pledged $1 million from the new state budget to sue the College Football Playoff committee over the Seminoles' snub from the four-team playoff. He said his "disappointed kids" drove him to allocate a "small amount" for that pivotal legal exploration.
Yet despite FSU's strong season before Jordan Travis' untimely injury in a game against a lesser opponent at the end of the year, the Governor traveled around the country and griped about Florida's athletes not meeting muster.
"Clemson has won in football recently. Florida, our state, has struggled in college football recently," DeSantis complained in South Carolina. "We were the top state for years and years. We've not had anybody compete even to make the playoff until this year."
"We've actually never had a team in the college football playoff since the playoffs started. Fast forward, rewind, when I was growing up in the '80s and '90s, it was like a Florida team was competing for the national title almost every year," he said on a radio show around the same time in 2023.
"I realized this my first year as Governor. I asked my staff to give me letters of congratulations for all Florida's high school blue-chip football recruits because we've got great high school football in Florida" DeSantis said during another event last year.
"And I'm signing these letters and it's like, 'Dear Michael, congratulations on going to the University of Georgia. Congratulations on going to Alabama.' And I'm like, why congratulate them for leaving our state?"@CanesFootball
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