Mark Woods: Florida politicians call for lawsuits and transparency for FSU? That's rich.

In the past week, one issue sure got a lot of attention from Florida politicians.

The governor announced he wants $1 million to be available for a lawsuit. A former president blamed the governor for what had happened. And a senator wrote a scathing letter, laying out a list of demands for those who were in the room where it happened. Emails, text messages, answers.

“Some people have asked why a U.S. Senator is getting involved in this issue,” Sen. Rick Scott said in an op-ed published in the Tallahassee Democrat, “and this is what it boils down to: I won’t stand around and say nothing while people in my state get screwed.”

And what issue might this be? Federal funds not coming to Florida? Housing? Insurance? The salacious saga of the GOP state chair and his wife, a co-founder of Moms for Liberty?

Nope. Scott was talking about college football — specifically Florida State finishing the regular season unbeaten, but not being selected as one of the four teams for a playoff to decide the national title.

If it were up to me, Florida State would be in. The Seminoles losing their starting quarterback but still finding a way to win doesn’t change that. If anything, it makes this team and its unbeaten run more endearing.

I know some University of Florida fans have a slightly different view. Some might even be celebrating a weekend that ended with two rivals, previously unbeaten Georgia and still unbeaten Florida State, out of the playoff, heading instead to a meeting in the Orange Bowl (or, as some are calling it, “The Snub Bowl.”)

It’s understandable for FSU and its fans to be fuming. And it would’ve been fine for some Florida politicians to chime in, then go back to worrying about all the pressing issues in our state today.

I mean, it was one thing for Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan, an FSU alumna, to share Seminoles coach Mike Norvell’s statement (“I am disgusted and infuriated …”) on Sunday, on her social media account that is separate from one for official mayoral business. It would’ve been another thing if she came to work Monday morning and said to her staff, let’s devote time and taxpayer money to fighting with the NCAA.

That is what some state leaders did.

Politicians want you to chip in $1 million

On Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference at a charter school on Marco Island to announce his recommendations for the 2024 state budget. That’s when he said he wants to set aside $1 million to let FSU sue the College Football Playoff committee.

“My first-grader, my fifth-grader and my preschooler … they are all Noles and they are big-time fans and they do the tomahawk chop and they were not happy,” DeSantis said. “We are going to set aside $1 million and let the chips fall where they may.”

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, an FSU grad, tweeted: “I’ll have no problem cutting those checks.”

If there is indeed a state-supported lawsuit, prepare for the FS-Sue jokes. And when the chips fall where they may long after the season is over, Florida State and the state of Florida will lose, and you will pay. The biggest winners will be the teams that have been kept quite busy with DeSantis as governor — the lawyers.

In 2023, the GOP-led Legislature included in the budget an unprecedented amount for legal costs, almost $16 million, including $6 million just for DeSantis’ legal expenses. Fighting culture wars ain’t cheap.

Yes, the state has its own team of lawyers, led by Attorney General Ashley Moody. But when you're piling up lawsuits like this administration, you end up hiring outside counsel. The fight with Disney reportedly is costing nearly $1,300 an hour in legal fees.

The proliferation of lawsuits led Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University, to tell the Guardian: "DeSantis has been God’s gift to lawyers."

And in 2024, the hours billed to Florida taxpayers could be even higher.

Call for 'full transparency' coming from inside glass house

Rick Scott didn’t call for a lawsuit about the FSU exclusion, but he demanded “full transparency" from the playoff committee. He criticized how this decision was made by a 13-member body that has “just five individuals with relevant experience in coaching or playing football at the collegiate level or higher.” This said by a politician in a state that is littered with political appointees, boards and even college presidents with little or no relevant experience in the area they’re overseeing.

“If the committee believes it made the right choice,” Scott wrote in his op-ed, “then responding to my letter and being very transparent about why this happened should be the easiest thing in the world for them to do.”

It’s something to watch Scott demanding transparency and answers without even a trace of irony. It's a call coming from inside a glass house in Naples.

When the health care company Scott ran ended up paying one of the largest fines for Medicare fraud in U.S. history, one of the primary issues was transparency. Among the details from a whistleblower: Scott’s company had kept two sets of books, one to show government auditors, one to keep tucked away.

And when it comes to answers, Scott infamously didn’t give a single one in a civil lawsuit related to his company. Seventy-five times he responded to questions by invoking the Fifth Amendment.

And his business was people’s health. He was accused of putting profits ahead of patients. But, sure, question whether a college football decision involved “some financial calculation.” Money playing a role in college football? Next thing you’ll be telling me there’s gambling in Casablanca.

To top it all off, we also had Donald Trump jumping into the FSU debate, criticizing the playoff exclusion and laying the blame on … DeSantis.

“Florida State was treated very badly by the ‘Committee,'” he wrote on Truth Social. “They become the first Power Five team to be left out of the College Football Playoffs. Really bad lobbying effort…Lets blame DeSanctimonious!!!”

Remember when FSU won its first title?

I’ll leave the sports debate to others. As I said, I’d put FSU in. But I would also say there is a long history in college football of teams and fans having reason to complain about being slighted — and two instances seem particularly relevant after all the fuss of this past week.

— In 2017, another Florida school, UCF, finished the regular season unbeaten but wasn’t picked for the playoffs. The committee selected four teams with regular-season losses (Clemson, Alabama, Georgia and Oklahoma). The argument against UCF was that, with its conference schedule and players, it wasn’t really one of the best four teams in the country. Sound familiar?

Before Alabama beat Georgia in the championship game, UCF faced Auburn — a team that had beaten both Alabama and Georgia that season — in the Peach Bowl.

If anyone is going to argue today that the most important thing should be wins and losses — if Florida politicians are going to call for lawsuits — I sure hope they were doing it when UCF beat Auburn, finished with the only unbeaten record in Division I football and, to much mocking, declared itself national champion.

Rick Scott, then governor, did issue a proclamation. He did not, however, write letters and op-eds, saying people in his state were getting screwed, and demanding transparency and answers.

— In 1993, West Virginia and Nebraska finished the regular season as the only two unbeaten bowl-eligible teams. (Auburn, also undefeated, was on probation.) But an 11-0 West Virginia team wasn’t given a chance to play in that season’s de facto national title game. An 11-1 Florida State team was.

The argument was that while West Virginia, ranked No. 2 in the coaches' poll, deserved to celebrate its surprising unbeaten run, it wasn’t really one of the two best teams in the country.

Florida State, which lost a regular-season game to Notre Dame, played Nebraska in the Orange Bowl, won 18-16, and happily celebrated its first national championship.

I don’t recall any Florida politicians saying this was a travesty. To the contrary, when West Virginia lost 41-7 to Florida in the Sugar Bowl, some in the state pointed to this as validation for the decision to put FSU in the title game.

A four-team playoff — it will go to 12 next year — never was a guarantee of eliminating these kinds of debates. And there certainly are reasons to question the transparency and motives of college football’s leaders. But for Florida politicians to do it? That’s rich. And it might end up costing taxpayers.

mwoods@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4212

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: DeSantis, Scott call for lawsuits, answers after FSU football snub