DeSantis sets aside $1 million to sue over Florida State's playoff snub

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he plans to set aide $1 million from the state’s annual budget to Florida State University (FSU) for potential ligation over its football team's controversial snub from the College Football Playoff.

DeSantis, who is currently running for president, made the announcement during a press conference on his budget proposal for fiscal 2024-25. 

“But 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,” DeSantis said at the press conference. 

DeSantis, who noted that his kids are big Seminoles fans, said litigation may not change the outcome, but that the state would let “the chips fall where they may on that.”

“We had one of our schools, Florida State, go undefeated this year and win the conference championship,” DeSantis said. “They earned a spot in the college football playoffs, and they were excluded from that, and I think was something that's been very, very controversial.”  

This move comes a day after DeSantis railed against the College Football Playoff committee's decision to snub the undefeated Seminoles and instead pick the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide to fill-out the four-team playoff field, despite Alabama's loss to the University of Texas Longhorns earlier this season.

Joining Alabama and Texas in the playoff are the undefeated University of Michigan Wolverines and University of Washington Huskies. 

“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. Congratulations to @FSUFootball for an outstanding season and winning the ACC championship!” DeSantis wrote Sunday on X, formerly called Twitter.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) also wrote a letter to the playoff committee, demanding it turn over text, emails and notes related to its decision to exclude FSU from the field. 

“The Committee’s decision to remove FSU from playoff contention is also difficult to understand given the Committee’s actions in prior years when ranking other undefeated, Power Five conference champions among the top four teams in the nation,” he wrote. 

Florida State will instead take on the University of Georgia Bulldogs on Dec. 30 in the Orange Bowl.