Florida State, Obama can’t get on same page

The Florida State Seminoles may become the first Obama-era college football national champions not to visit the White House for a celebratory meeting with the president.

“The window for a team visit has likely closed altogether,” a spokesman for the team told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, just days before the team was set to begin its title defense with a kickoff game against Oklahoma State on Saturday.

{mosads}According to email exchanges shared by the Florida university, the White House said the president was unavailable on 12 different dates submitted by the school, ranging from April to June. Attempts to schedule a visit are ongoing, but the start of the football season has complicated that effort.

Although White House officials told the Journal they were still working to find a date for Florida State to visit, there may be reasons for the president to shy away from a meeting with the team.

Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jameis Winston was accused of sexually assaulting another student at the university in 2012, and local authorities — who ultimately opted against filing criminal charges — were widely criticized for their handling of the case. The Department of Education has launched an investigation into the university’s handling of the allegations.

Over the summer, Winston was also cited for shoplifting after allegedly attempting to steal crab legs from a supermarket.

Earlier this spring, the president announced a task force working to generate recommendations for how the federal government can help combat sexual assaults.

“When a young woman drops out of school after being attacked, that’s not just a terrible loss for her, it’s a loss for our country,” Obama said when announcing the initiative.

At a science fair event at the White House in May, the president also opined on how he wanted to do more to highlight work done by scientists and entrepreneurs.

“There’s a tradition that when the NBA champions or the NFL champions or college football champions — if they win a championship, they get a chance to come and get highlighted in the White House and take a picture with the president,” Obama said. “But I believe that what’s being done by these amazing young people who I had a chance to meet is even more important.

“And I’m a big sports fan. Everybody knows that,” he added. “But what’s happening here is more important.  As a society, we have to celebrate outstanding work by young people in science at least as much as we do Super Bowl winners.”

The president has met with every other champion from the major sports leagues, including the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, and men’s college basketball, with the exceptions of the San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Kings, who won their respective titles in June. Florida State’s Bowl Championship Series title was secured in January.