Florida State Seminoles WR Ja’Khi Douglas announce departure due to an issue having with..

December saw two historic events for college football fans and supporters of Florida State: first, the Seminoles, the unbeaten Power Five conference champions, were eliminated from the College Football Playoff (CFP) in favor of Texas and Alabama, two SEC schools, and second, the FSU Board of Trustees sued the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) to contest the Grant of Rights and permanently withdraw from the competition.

Recent events have legally connected the two moments.

Cries of conspiracy between ESPN (a network that has contributed substantially more money to the SEC) and the CFP since Selection Sunday in early December have given rise to a wide range of speculations about what, if anything, actually happened behind the scenes.

For example, in early January, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody sent a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) to the CFP Selection Committee, requesting “all communications” to or from the SEC, ACC, NCAA, ESPN, and all 10 FBS football conferences, in addition to the Committee members’ compensation.