Sen. Rick Scott is so angry about Florida State University’s snub from the College Football Playoff that he wants formal answers from the selection committee.
Mr. Scott, Florida Republican, said the unprecedented decision to exclude the Seminoles — an undefeated team from a “Power Five” conference — from the four-team playoff demands “total transparency.”
He said the decision to lock out FSU while admitting two teams with one loss, the University of Texas and the University of Alabama, will cause heartache and financial losses at the Tallahassee school.
“Beyond the benefit to the university and its athletic program, the Committee’s decision will also likely have profound impacts on the future earnings and opportunities for the players,” Mr. Scott wrote to Selection Committee Chairman Boo Corrigan.
The senator demanded notes and written communications about the committee’s decision-making and ranking procedures.
Mr. Scott said the committee appeared to factor in a season-ending injury to FSU quarterback Jordan Travis, yet the injury did not impact the previous week’s rankings and FSU beat a highly ranked Louisville team without Mr. Travis.
“The main issue is the justified perception of an unfair system that has wrongly disregarded the known strengths of an undefeated team over the speculated impact of losing a single player,” Mr. Scott wrote.
“While I doubt the Committee’s decision will be reversed to rightly reward FSU for its hard-fought, undefeated season as the Committee has done for other undefeated Power Five conference champions in recent years,” he added, “I do believe that total transparency regarding how this decision was reached would do tremendous good for the Committee, the CFP as a whole, and the college football community.”
Football pundits say the committee had an impossible situation in which it confronted a plethora of deserving teams and had to choose the four best instead of simply admitting FSU.
Yet Florida politicians are up in arms.
“Really bad lobbying effort … Lets [sic] blame DeSanctimonious!!!” he wrote on Truth Social.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, Florida Democrat, said he is drafting a resolution condemning the NCAA.
“This decision is about TV money, a corrupt decision for college athletics,” he said on X.
Rep. Byron Donalds, Florida Republican, posted: “The CFP committee is trash!”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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