Stephen A. Smith knocks DeSantis response to College Football Playoff picks: ‘Will you stop?’

ESPN host Stephen A. Smith threw shade at Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) over his response to Florida State University’s (FSU) snub from the College Football Playoff.

“Will you stop? First of all sir, don’t you have bigger priorities?” Smith said Wednesday on an episode of the “The Stephen A. Smith Show.” “I mean, you’re down, you’re trailing [former President Trump] by about 59 points in the polls. The man ain’t even show up to debate you because he considers you that insignificant.”

“Don’t you have bigger problems?” Smith added. “I mean, thank the good Lord, that you ain’t trying to alter the education system by talking to us about how there were good elements of slavery, with the school board people that you put in place that were trying to make that argument. Thank goodness you ain’t doing that anymore.”

The sport’s commentator’s remarks come after DeSantis said earlier this week that he plans to set aside $1 million from the Sunshine State’s annual budget for possible litigation in relation to FSU not being included in the playoffs.

He called the slight a “really, really poor decision” by the College Football Playoff committee.

“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 posted Sunday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Congratulations to @FSUFootball for an outstanding season and winning the ACC championship!”

DeSantis wasn’t the only Floridian politician to express concern over the perceived snub, after Alabama was chosen for the playoffs despite losing a game to the University of Texas Longhorns on Sept. 9 — while Florida State kept a perfect record.  

Sen. Rick Scott (R) wrote a letter to the chairman of the selection committee, demanding “total transparency” on how the decision was made.

“Was this a financial decision? If you did the right thing, you should disclose everything. Be up front about it. Disclose what happened, how they made the decision,” Scott told The Hill.

Trump — also a Florida resident — weighed in as well, placing the blame back on DeSantis.

“Florida State was treated very badly by the ‘Committee,’” the former president wrote Monday 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!!!”