Senator Rick Scott Responds to Letter from CFP’s Bill Hancock – he FSU Board of Trustees voted “yes” to file a lawsuit against the ACC.

On December 15, 2023, the Executive Director of the College Football Playoff Committee, Bill Hancock, responded to a letter from Senator Rick Scott requesting full transparency and all forms of communication regarding the decision to leave Florida State University out of the playoffs.

Scott’s original correspondence to the committee was a list of ten requests including “the “listing step” and “ranking step” votes of each member of the Selection Committee for the CFP rankings released on Sunday, December 3, 2023. Any notes, recordings or reports detailing the deliberations of the CFP Selection Committee in deciding the CFP rankings released on Sunday, December 3, 2023. Any emails, text messages or other written communication exchanged between the members of the Selection Committee regarding the CFP rankings released on Sunday, December 3, 2023.”

While the above paragraph only lists three of the requests from Scott’s list, they are still very important and he deserved a respectful and intelligent response, which he did not get. Instead, Hancock threw together a sarcastic letter with two reasons that were used to make the final decision, “taking into considerations the unavailability of players” and “FSU’s strength of schedule.”

Scott’s ending correspondence in the response letter was “Finally, please know that no matter how busy things are in Washington, I will never stop fighting for Florida families, our students and our universities. I sincerely hope that you will take this opportunity to choose transparency and salvage the integrity of the important organization you represent.”

Scott also tweeted, “The @CFBPlayoff’s decision will deny significant financial and economic opportunities for #FSU, our student athletes, the City of Tallahassee and the State of Florida. It’s bigger than college football and I won’t stop fighting for Florida, our students and our universities,”

On Thursday, December 21, 2023, the ACC rushed to file a lawsuit in North Carolina against Florida State University Titled Complaint for Declaratory Judgement. It appears the ACC did not seem to comprehend or recognize it was not a race about who filed the first lawsuit but was the importance of ethics and values standing behind the lawsuit that mattered to Florida State University.

On December 22, 2023, the Florida State University Board of Trustees publicly voted and approved the filing of a lawsuit against the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). They will be seeking a copy of the Grant of Rights contract and more than $500 million in penalty charges to be ruled “unenforceable”. Breach of contract is one of the cited claims.

“I believe this board has been left with no choice but to challenge the legitimacy of the ACC Grant of Rights and its severe withdrawal penalties,” said Peter Collins. He continued to explain about how it was not an easy decision for the board to make.

Florida State University’s 16th President, Richard McCullough spoke his thoughts during the meeting, “It’s not reasonable for us to freely decide the fate of our athletics program and without that, that means we are essentially bound by this penalty which was created completely superfluously by the ACC.” He also said, “We need to do what is best for this university.”

During the meeting it was mentioned that these discussions have been going on for over a year and confirmed there was a meeting back in August to discuss the exiting of the program from the ACC. The meeting was before everything was brought to light by the playoff committees’ decision to bump the Florida State Football Team down to a #5 ranking.

The ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips immediately launched a response to the FSU Board of Trustees meeting, blaming FSU of being in, “clear violation of their legal commitments to other members of the conference.” The letter continued with this closing statement, “We are confident that the Grant of Rights, which has been honored by all other universities who signed similar agreements, will be affirmed by the courts and the Conference’s legal council will vigorously enforce the agreement in the best interests of the ACC’s current and incoming members.”

As it stands, the Florida State University Seminoles have a lot of people standing up on their behalf. Not only are government officials stepping in to stand up against and question the Playoff Committee’s final four team decision, but celebrity athlete Charles Barkley has thrown his opinion into the loop, “If we’re gonna play sports now where it only matters if you’re using your starters, I don’t want to be in that world. They won three games with a backup and another backup.”

Unfortunately, with the loss of the 2023 Orange Bowl questions are on the rise about what the outcome will be for the floating lawsuits that were recently filed. It was an inevitable loss. The loss was a direct result of the College Football Playoff Committee’s decision that caused a domino effect of athlete opt outs and transfers that might have otherwise not happened. What people need to realize before throwing criticism is the Florida State Seminoles lost at least 25+ of their athletes due to opt out decisions and the transfers. Trey Benson, Keon Coleman, Jaheim Bell are just a few of the athletes who chose to opt out of the Orange Bowl. These athletes were key players during the games of the undefeated season and were truly missed during the Orange Bowl Game. There is no doubt the turnout would have been better if they had played.

Patricia Smith - Gadsden County News Service

Senator Rick Scott Responds to Letter from CFP’s Bill Hancock – he FSU Board of Trustees voted “yes” to file a lawsuit against the ACC.

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Senator Rick Scott Responds to Letter from CFP’s Bill Hancock – he FSU Board of Trustees voted “yes” to file a lawsuit against the ACC.

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Riverchase Health and Rehabilitation Center Receives special visit from Santa and the Figgers Foundation

Simmons leaves FAMU for Duke

Simmons leaves FAMU for Duke

Recommended

Obituary – Betty Jayne (Solomon) Edwards

Gadsden County Legals – 7/22

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