A political football? Donald Trump blames Ron DeSantis for Florida State's playoff snub

Donald Trump likes to criticize campaign rival Ron DeSantis − and on Monday the former president even blamed the governor for Florida State University's football misfortune.

Noting that Florida State University is the first unbeaten team from a big-time conference to be left out of college football's four-team playoff, Trump shared on his Truth Social platform: "Really bad lobbying effort…Lets blame DeSanctimonious!!!"

DeSantis may be the governor of Florida, but he had nothing to do with a college football committee's decision to pick the University of Alabama over Florida State University for the last slot in it's four-team playoff. The Crimson Tide joins the universities of Michigan, Washington, and Texas in the mini-tournament to be held early next year.

The teams were chosen by College Football Playoff selection committee, and DeSantis and other Floridians quickly pointed out that FSU has a perfect record of 13-0, while Alabama finished their season at 12-1.

Others said the playoff committee selected the four best teams, and Alabama simply looked better than Florida State. The Crimson Tide's lone loss came at the hands of another playoff team, Texas.

The Seminoles were also hurt by the fact that their quarterback, Jordan Travis, is injured and would not have been able to play in the games.

DeSantis registered his own complaint Sunday on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

"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," the Florida governor said, congratulating Florida State on their "outstanding season."

Florida State now goes to the Orange Bowl to play the formerly unbeaten University of Georgia, whose loss to Alabama on Saturday created a difficult situation for the playoff committee. Meanwhile, Alabama takes on Michigan in a semi-final playoff game at the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day. Texas and Washington's teams match up in the other semi-final at the Sugar Bowl.

Other Florida politicians have protested the move as well. U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., sent a letter "demanding answers and transparency" from the playoff selection committee about favoring Alabama over FSU. It's also possible that the college football kerfuffle could surface at Wednesday's Republican presidential debate, to be held on the campus of the University of Alabama.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump blames Ron DeSantis for Florida State's football snub