The college football world has spent the last 24 hours arguing endlessly about the College Football Playoff committee’s decision to leave an undefeated Florida State team out of the top-4 in favor of a one-loss Alabama team.
Some, like ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit and Greg McElroy, felt the committee had done the right thing and put the best team in the playoff, as Florida State simply wasn’t the same team with Jordan Travis injured and their third-stringer being thrust into the starting lineup for a sloppy ACC title game. And yet, they had won that ACC title game against a previously top-12 ranked Louisville squad even with the injuries, and somehow fell in the rankings. Booger McFarland took up the ‘Noles side on ESPN’s selection show and torched the committee, calling the rankings a “travesty to the sport,” noting the team had done everything it could be possibly asked to do and still got left out.
Unsurprisingly, the anger over the Seminoles’ snub became fodder for politicians as they get ready for the 2024 election, with Florida senator Rick Scott demanding answers from CFP chairman — who, to be clear, went on TV and also held a press conference in which he answered almost all of those questions already. Florida governor and Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis issued a far less aggressive statement on the matter, and then found himself in the crosshairs of his chief rival for the Republican nomination, as Donald Trump posted that blame for FSU’s snub falls on Ron’s shoulders for a “really bad lobbying effort.”
oh my god pic.twitter.com/XxFye3EbQw
— Shehan Jeyarajah (@ShehanJeyarajah) December 4, 2023
There really is nothing that gets politicians pandering quite like a sports controversy, as it is the lowest hanging fruit they can go after to try and curry some public favor. Trump has never missed an opportunity to dunk on DeSantis, and managed to turn the ‘Noles pain into his gain, as he found yet another way to try and turn people against ol’ Ron.
Source: https://uproxx.com/sports/donald-trump-florida-state-college-football-snub-committee-blames-ron-desantis/
