TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is launching an antitrust investigation amid the College Football Playoff Selection Committee's decision to exclude Florida State University from playing in the postseason.
In a video, Moody said her office wants more specifics on the committee's selection process, such as possible contracts or conspiracies in the monopolization of trade.
“I’m a lifelong Gator, but I’m also the Florida Attorney General, and I know injustice when I see it," Moody said. "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.”
Florida State finished with a 13-0 season and won the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) championship game over the weekend, even after losing the Seminoles' star quarterback Jordan Travis in November. Fans nationwide criticized the College Football Playoff Selection Committee in ranking FSU No. 5 while one-loss Texas (12-1) and Alabama (12-1), placing No. 3 and No. 4, respectively, have a shot at national glory — a snub to Florida State.
Moody mentioned the investigation will look to receive communications relating to deliberation from the Power Five conferences, public statements relating to the deliberations, documents showing compensation of members this year and the committee's standards relating to ethics and conflicts of interest.
"The Civil Investigative Demand also seeks to identify all individual votes and vote tallies by members in the deliberations, all persons who received access to any votes, all persons present during any vote and any individual knowledgeable about the administration or use of the software or program used to record or tally votes," the Attorney General's office said in a news release.
Moody isn't the first politician from Florida to look into FSU's playoff snub.
Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he is willing to spend up to $1 million in taxpayer dollars to potentially sue over FSU's football team not making the playoffs.
DeSantis' million-dollar effort "for expenses related to litigation" is a result of "Florida State University['s] football team to be ranked fifth in the nation and, consequently, ineligible to participate in the College Football Playoff games," the proposal says, in part.
"What we've decided to do is set aside a million dollars for any litigation expenses that may become as a result of this really, really poor decision by the College Football Playoff to exclude an undefeated team who won a Power Five conference championship," DeSantis said. He said, living in Tallahassee, his children were "not happy" at the committee's decision Sunday.
"It's unfortunate that we have to even do that, but we're going to put aside a million dollars and let the chips fall where they may on that," DeSantis continued.
The issue has even made it to the halls of Congress as U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican, posted a letter Monday morning on X addressed to CFP Chairman Boo Corrigan. Scott called the College Football Playoff Selection Committee's decision to exclude FSU "shocking" and "unprecedented" and demanded "total transparency" in how the outcome was reached.
The Florida senator says that the decision will have financial implications for the FSU football program, the players' future earning opportunities and the university as a whole. He also demanded notes and other communications between the committee members.
Florida State is set to face the No. 6 University of Georgia Bulldogs in the Orange Bowl on Dec. 30.
10 Tampa Bay's Andrew Krietz contributed to this story.