Florida
Why 12-team College Football Playoff is blessing, curse for Tennessee, Florida, LSU | Toppmeyer
Whether the expanded College Football Playoff comes as a blessing or a curse depends on which side of the break you’re on and what your rivals are up to.
It’s a grand development for a team like Penn State, which has finished inside the top 12 of the final playoff rankings six times in the past eight years but never qualified for a four-team playoff.
But, what about for a program like Florida? The Gators would’ve made a 12-team playoff in each of Dan Mullen’s first three seasons. The past three seasons, though, the Gators would’ve have been close to anything short of a 60-team playoff.
Meanwhile, Florida’s rivals would’ve marched into an expanded playoff one by one. It’s nauseating enough for Gators fans to stomach all that Dawg barking after Georgia won consecutive national championships. Now, imagine the feeling in Florida of seeing not only Georgia but also Tennessee making the 2022 playoff, or Georgia and Florida State piling into the playoff last season.
Now consider this season, when Georgia, Tennessee, LSU and FSU profile as a playoff hopeful, while the Gators are positioned for more mediocrity. Billy Napier serving a Mayo Bowl appearance Year 3 while four rivals piled into the playoff would come as some kind of sad consolation, indeed.
In the four-team playoff era, if your team plays for mayonnaise while your rival plays in the Citrus Bowl, a fan fluent in mental gymnastics can convince himself that’s about equivalent. That logic doesn’t hold, though, if your rivals take over the first round of the 12-team playoff. No one wants to see their coach slathered in a gross sandwich condiment while several rivals play for the big kids’ prize.
Are Gators fans really supposed to chant “S-E-C! S-E-C!” while Georgia and Tennessee play in a playoff quarterfinal?
This possibility is not unique to Florida.
Since Tennessee won its last national title, rivals Alabama, Florida and Georgia each won multiple national championships throughout the BCS and four-team playoff eras while the Vols cycled through coaches who ranged from losers to brick masons to cheating losers. A maddening decade-plus for Tennessee, it was, before Josh Heupel’s arrival.
Watching Mullen’s Gators claim a few playoff bids would’ve been gasoline to Tennessee’s mattress fire.
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Maybe, in this instance, it’s better to have fewer rivals than Florida or Tennessee – or at least weaker rivals. Missouri left its rivals behind when it left the Big 12. So what if Alabama, Georgia, LSU and Ole Miss make the playoff while Mizzou heads to a Florida bowl game? The Tigers still can enjoy the reprieve from the snow with the comfort that Kansas won’t make the playoff either.
Lording superiority over the Jayhawks wouldn’t be a salve for LSU fans. Consider this possibility: LSU narrowly misses the playoff in Brian Kelly’s third season, while Alabama qualifies in Kalen DeBoer’s first season and the Lane Train powers Ole Miss into the first round, as well.
In a four-team playoff, there wouldn’t be room for Alabama and Ole Miss. There might not be room for either this season. With 12 qualifiers, ample room exists for both.
Of course, it also increases the possibility that Kelly’s Tigers will qualify.
So, I reiterate: 12-team playoff, blessing or curse?
“More spots in the playoff creates opportunity,” Kelly told me last month in response to that question.
It’s an opportunity, sure.
It’s an opportunity to either make the playoff, or be relegated to an even more irrelevant bowl game, while rivals revel at the real party.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.
A digital subscription will allow you access to all of his coverage. Also, check out his podcast, SEC Football Unfiltered, or access exclusive columns via the SEC Unfiltered newsletter.
Florida
Florida college Republicans group chat reveals racist texts: ‘Avoid the coloreds like the plague’
It only took three weeks for a group chat for conservative students at Florida International University (FIU) to become a place where participants eagerly used racist slurs, prompting widespread condemnation from community leaders.
Abel Alexander Carvajal, secretary of Miami-Dade county’s Republican party and a student at FIU’s College of Law, reportedly started the chat after the killing of Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, in September 2025.
But on Wednesday, the Miami Herald published leaked WhatsApp conversations in which the college Republicans made racist, sexist, antisemitic and homophobic comments, including variations of the N-word used more than 400 times. Knowledge of the chat’s existence was revealed on the same day that Republican lawmakers in Florida pushed forward a bill to rename a one-mile stretch of road alongside FIU in honor of Kirk.
William Bejerano, who the Herald noted once tried to start an anti-abortion group at Miami Dade College, was the most prolific user of the N-word. Using the slur, Bejerano called for dozens of acts of extreme violence against Black people, including crucifying, beheading and dissecting.
Dariel Gonzalez, then the College Republicans’ recruitment chair, who has recently applied to become a GOP committee member, responded to the calls for violence by saying: “How edgy.” He repeatedly used “colored” to describe Black people, including writing: “Ew you had colored professors?!” and “Avoid the coloreds like the plague,” according to the Herald.
Carvajal, who was appointed to a two-year role on the city of Hialeah’s planning and zoning board earlier this year, confirmed to the paper that the group chat was his doing, but he denied knowledge of the problematic comments until the publication contacted him about its logs last week.
“It’s been five months since this was sent and this is the first time I’ve seen this message,” Carvajal told the Herald.
“I guess to an extent, I bear some responsibility, cause I created a chat. But if I had seen this at the moment, I would have removed [Bejerano] from the chat. I probably would have even blocked his number.”
The Herald found that Carvajal had deleted 14 messages sent by other participants in the chat and 42 of his own messages before the publication obtained the chat’s logs.
He also participated in some of the racist discussions. While referring to a Black student who allegedly left FIU’s College Republicans after a member of the group “called her a [N-word]”, the Floridian reported that Carvajal wrote: “Why didn’t miggress leave?” Elsewhere in the chat, the publication reported that Carvajal used “Miggress”, “Migglet” and “Migger” to refer to Black women, Black children and Black people, in general.
At one point, Gonzalez wrote: “You can fuck all the [K-word, a slur for Jewish people] you want. Just don’t marry them and procreate.”
Ian Valdes, the Turning Point USA FIU chapter president, responded, “I would def not marry a Jew,” before changing the group chat’s name from “Uber [R-word slur for disabled people] Yapping” to “Gooning in Agartha”. “Gooning” is a gen-Z slang term for male masturbation, while “Agartha” is a mythical white civilization promoted by Heinrich Himmler, one of the most powerful leaders in Nazi Germany next to Hitler.
Gonzalez reportedly described Agartha to the group chat as “Nazi heaven sort of”.
Kevin Cooper, the first Jewish chair of the Miami Dade Republican party, condemned the group chat in a statement published to X and called for Carvajal’s resignation.
“The majority of our board voted to request Carvajal’s resignation. We have commenced removal proceedings and look forward to resolution from the Republican Party of Florida,” he wrote.
That call was echoed by Juan Porras, a Republican state representative and Miami-Dade GOP state committee member, who said in a statement: “Leadership carries responsibility. When someone in a leadership role engages in this kind of behavior, it damages the trust placed in our party by voters across Florida. For that reason, I am asking the Miami Dade Republican party secretary to step down from this position.”
In a joint statement, Florida Republican state senators Alexis Calatayud, Ileana Garcia and Ana Maria Rodriguez denounced the chats and called for the expulsion from party leadership of its participants.
“The individuals in the group chat have exposed how profoundly misaligned their beliefs are to the views of the Republican party of Florida,” their statement said. “We call for the immediate expulsion of the individuals disseminating from any level of leadership of the Miami-Dade Republican Party … We will not tolerate bigotry or discrimination.”
Multiple leaked group chats from young Republicans have created controversy in recent years.
Last year, Politico published messages from a group chat of more than 100 conservatives across the country in which users also made racist and antisemitic comments. In 2022, a Young Republican group chat from North Dakota was revealed as a cesspool of homophobic and antisemitic rhetoric.
Florida
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Florida
Gas prices rise in South Florida amid U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, as the stock market also reports a dip
Four days into the Iranian conflict, gas prices are rising at many stations in South Florida.
“I’ve traveled all over the United States,” says Stacey Williams. CBS Miami spoke to him as he was gassing up on the turnpike. He paid $66 for 20 gallons of diesel to fill his pickup truck. Williams has noted the fluctuations in fuel as he drives to locations for his work on turbines. He just spent three weeks at the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant south of Miami.
“The salary we get paid per hour does not add up to what we pay for gas, housing, and food,” he says.
Mitchell Gershon is also dealing with the higher gas prices. He has to fill three vehicles constantly for his business—Thrifty Gypsy, a pop-up store at musical venues. He’s back and forth from Orlando to Miami and says fuel is costing him 20% more. When asked how he handles these fluctuations, he said, “Have a little backup cash so you are ready for it.”
The rise in oil prices contributed to a drop in the stock market on Tuesday, which means some retirement accounts dipped, too. CBS Miami talked to Chad NeSmith, director of investments at Tobias Financial Advisors in Plantation, for perspective on the drop.
“We are seeing most of the pullback today. Yesterday was a shock,” he says. He’s not expecting runaway oil prices but says investors should stay in the loop: “Pay attention to your portfolio. Stick to your goals. Have a plan because these things are completely unpredictable.”
That unpredictability has Williams adjusting his budget. “You just cut back, cut corners, all you can do,” he says.
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