Florida’s Governor says he “denied” a push to turn the annual football game between Georgia and Florida into a home-and-home series that would have moved it from Jacksonville, where it’s been for decades, despite the theory that UF would make more money hosting the game.
“As a conservative, I understand my job is just as much to prevent bad ideas from going into place as it is to facilitate good,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said during an appearance at “The Gathering.”
DeSantis noted that “a couple of years ago” he “had some people come to (him) with an idea and they said, ‘Governor, we have calculated that we could make more money for the University of Florida if we moved the Florida-Georgia game from Jacksonville to a home-and-home series.’”
“And I said, you know, that very well may be true, but I am not going to be the Governor that loses the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party,” DeSantis said, referring to the old nickname for the game foisted upon it back in 1958 by a former sports editor for The Florida Times-Union as a commentary on the public drinking.
As he has before, DeSantis complained about Florida’s reduced preeminence in college football, saying Georgia was “the college football center of the universe.”
He also complained, as he has before, about having to get high school athletes props for leaving the state.
“I remember my first year as Governor when National Signing Day happened for the football recruits. I told my staff to ‘give me letters for all the kids. I’m going to sign them letters saying congratulations.’ So they did,” DeSantis said.
“And we have a lot of great high school football in Florida, great talent. So I’m signing these letters and I’m reading, ‘Dear Johnny, congratulations on signing with the University of Georgia. Dear Michael, congratulations on signing with Alabama,” DeSantis added. “I’m like, wait a minute, why am I congratulating them for leaving (Florida) We used to keep all the blue chips in state.”
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