Florida Behaving Badly

John Thomas8 · #1

I'm kinda surprized there's not a "Florida Man" thread, maybe I didn't look hard enough.

But here's some bad behaviour, straight from the State AG:

(context: US college football plays it's championship game the 2nd Monday of January. The 4 participants are chosen by a committee of 13 "experts" and are supposed to take teams with excellent records from the 5 major conferences. This year the committee picked a 12-1 Alabama team over a 13-0 Florida State team. Much outrage accompanied by much excuse making have ensued.)

"I'm a lifelong Gator, but I'm also the Florida attorney general, and I know injustice when I see it," Moody said in a video announcement in front of Doak Campbell Stadium, Florida State's home field. "No rational person or college football fan can look at this situation and not question the result. The NCAA, conferences and the College Football Playoff committee are subject to antitrust laws.

"My office is launching an investigation to examine if the committee was involved in any anticompetitive conduct. As it stands, the committee's decision reeks of partiality, so we are demanding answers -- not only for FSU, but for all schools, teams and fans of college football. In Florida, merit matters. If it's attention they were looking for, the committee certainly has our attention now."

As poorly as Florida's state government operates, one of its members calling out any other entity is laughably obscene.

#2

Talk about sour grapes. Didn't they lose their quarterback or something, and that is why they weren't picked? I seem to recall something like that.

Slim Cognito · #3

I live in FL. I've seen headlines about this but not being a sportsball person, didn't bother to read the articles. I did see something about DuhSantis wanting $1 million in taxpayer $$ allocated for a lawsuit to do hellifIknow, maybe force the league to give the allegedly disrespected team participation trophies? He has no problem spending our tax dollars on stupid shit that he thinks is going to make him president, but constituents who actually could use help? Fuggetaboutit.

John Thomas8 · #4

raison de arizona wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 1:16 pm Talk about sour grapes. Didn't they lose their quarterback or something, and that is why they weren't picked? I seem to recall something like that.

The sour grapes is generated by the financial connection between Alabama's conference, Southeastern (SEC) and the sole media partner, ESPN, with the selection committee.

That FSU lost its starter is vaguely relevant, except they won 2 games after his loss including the ACC Championship.

#5

The Committee is not supposed to choose the teams with the best records, or even the strongest records against other teams. A computer could do that.

The Committee is supposed to pick "the four best football teams" in this great land of ours, and that's exactly what they did.

Florida State is a two touchdown underdog to Georgia. They're not one of the ten "best teams" in America.

So go ahead and investigate, Ms. Gator Person, you dumb fuck.

Not that I have any feelings about it, y'know.

Reality Check · #6

Glad you started this thread. I was going to do it if someone didn't.

The FSU fans are ecstatic over this and some even think the courts are going to force the evil ESPN and the CFP committee bastards to put FSU into the playoffs. I dove into the comments on one video where an FSU fan complained that the ACC had no representation on the Selection Committee. When I pointed out that a current ACC AD chaired the damned committee his only comeback was that well the ACC hates FSU anyway. The FSU fan base has gone into bunker mode and is detached from reality. Actions like the one Florida is pulling will accomplish nothing except doing damage to the reputation of FSU and convincing Disney to not to spend another dollar more than they have to in Florida.

The reality is it's a publicity stunt by DeSantis and his RWNJ AG. If you read the fine print nothing has been filed and it is a civil action. She is asking for emails, text messages and any communications between ESPN and the CFP Selection Committee including even how the individual members voted. I am sure they will be more than willing to fork over those w/o a subpoena or a court order - right.

Jim · #7

Isn't the NCAA located in Indianapolis? So, wouldn't they have to sue in federal court? And wouldn't the NCAA have it remanded to an Indiana federal court, where they reside and the decision was made? So it sounds like another waste of taxpayer money that could have been used to help out homeowners without home insurance rather than be thrown down the sewer.

Reality Check · #8

Foggy wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 1:24 pm
So go ahead and investigate, Mr. Ms Gator Person, you dumb fuck.

FIFY

Reality Check · #9

Jim wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 2:01 pm Isn't the NCAA located in Indianapolis? So, wouldn't they have to sue in federal court? And wouldn't the NCAA have it remanded to an Indiana federal court, where they reside and the decision was made? So it sounds like another waste of taxpayer money that could have been used to help out homeowners without home insurance rather than be thrown down the sewer.

I did 5 minutes worth of Google searching and it seems that state AG's sometimes get involved in federal antitrust violations but it is usually in cooperation with federal authorities. The CFP is not part of the NCAA but was formed by the 10 conferences with teams in the FBS plus Notre Dame. CFP Administration, LLC is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Irvine, TX. They have no presence I can find in Florida.

I will leave it to the lawyers to opine on what would happen if the Floriduh AG filed something in Floriduh courts but I suspect it would be removed to federal court rather quickly.

noblepa · #10

Reality Check wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 2:14 pm
Jim wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 2:01 pm Isn't the NCAA located in Indianapolis? So, wouldn't they have to sue in federal court? And wouldn't the NCAA have it remanded to an Indiana federal court, where they reside and the decision was made? So it sounds like another waste of taxpayer money that could have been used to help out homeowners without home insurance rather than be thrown down the sewer.
I did 5 minutes worth of Google searching and it seems that state AG's sometimes get involved in federal antitrust violations but it is usually in cooperation with federal authorities. The CFP is not part of the NCAA but was formed by the 10 conferences with teams in the FBS plus Notre Dame. CFP Administration, LLC is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Irvine, TX. They have no presence I can find in Florida.

I will leave it to the lawyers to opine on what would happen if the Floriduh AG filed something in Floriduh courts but I suspect it would be removed to federal court rather quickly.

If the CFP is headquartered in TX, would they even need to bother to respond to a suit in a FL court? I assume that CFP has no assets in FL that could be attached, so even if the FL AG is granted summary judgement because the defendant failed to appear, what could the court do about it?

#11

Off Topic

Reality Check wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 2:02 pmFIFY

Thanks.

John Thomas8 · #12

Jim wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 2:01 pm Isn't the NCAA located in Indianapolis? So, wouldn't they have to sue in federal court? And wouldn't the NCAA have it remanded to an Indiana federal court, where they reside and the decision was made? So it sounds like another waste of taxpayer money that could have been used to help out homeowners without home insurance rather than be thrown down the sewer.

The NCAA has 0.0 to say about the current FBS playoff system, at all. If the NCAA had hammered Michigan, the Wolverines were still a valid selection for the CFP committee.

The College Football Playoff is a media construct set up outside the auspices of the NCAA. The CFP group of participants include ESPN, conference commissioners, individual school's presidents and ADs and with lesser input, the bowl committees. They all get a say on who's on the selection committee, everyone but the NCAA that is.

John Thomas8 · #13

noblepa wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 2:20 pm
If the CFP is headquartered in TX, would they even need to bother to respond to a suit in a FL court? I assume that CFP has no assets in FL that could be attached, so even if the FL AG is granted summary judgement because the defendant failed to appear, what could the court do about it?

The CFP committee meets in random places, Texas is one of many. They often meet via Zoom, so all 13 members could be in a different state. ESPN's HQ is in Connecticut. Disney owns ESPN, their HQ is in California if I'm not mistaken. The various participating conferences and schools are spread out across about 45 states.

Nailing down where to sue this bunch is like nailing jello to the wall.

They don't have a valid case anyway.

Reality Check · #14

You can bet the CFP had attorneys draw up contracts with all the schools and conferences that hold the parties to abiding by the decisions the selection committee makes. I saw an interview with John Skipper who ran ESPN when the playoff started. He said no way ESPN had any input into the decision. He said he got a phone call right before the selection show and that was the extent of his knowledge of their process.

#15

Also, if I read one of the articles about it correctly, nobody except the chairperson of the Committee has any idea if the vote was a unanimous 13 and 0, or a very close 7 to 6, or any possible vote in between. The tally isn't announced, even in the committee room. The chairperson just says whether what was voted on won. If I'm on the Committee and still don't even know what the vote was, you can be sure I'd want the Attorney General of Florida to know what it was before me, oh yeah.

John Thomas8 · #16

I take every single thing out of the committee's and ESPN's mouth/keyboard with a Jupiter-sized amount of skepticism.

There's too much money involved to have too much truth coming out.