Earlier this year, Georgia defeated TCU, 65-7, to win the 2023 NCAA College Football Playoff National Championship at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. It was Georgia’s second straight national championship win. Although the Bulldogs did not visit the White House in 2022 after winning the national championship in January 2022 due to COVID-19 restrictions, they will be skipping out on the WH visit once again.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden had extended the invitation as part of “College Athlete Day” at the White House for June 12. However, UGA’s Athletic Association said in a statement Tuesday that they have declined.
“The University of Georgia first received on May 3 an invitation for the Bulldog football team to visit the White House on June 12,” UGA’s Athletic Association said. “Unfortunately, the date suggested is not feasible given the student-athlete calendar and time of year. However, we are appreciative of the invitation and look forward to other opportunities for Georgia teams moving forward.” Despite that, further details were not shared about the “scheduling conflict.”
Last month, First Lady Jill Biden invited the LSU women’s basketball team to visit after winning the national championship against Iowa. While the winning team usually gets an invites, Biden said she wanted to invite the losing team as well. However, a few of the ladies made it clear on Twitter that they weren’t interested anymore.
“We’ll have the champions come to the White House; we always do. So, we hope LSU will come,” Jill said at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver, NBC Sports reported. “But, you know, I’m going to tell Joe [Biden] I think Iowa should come, too, because they played such a good game.” Some of the LSU athletes on the team were not here for Mrs. Biden breaking tradition. After Jill’s statement spread over social media, LSU star Angel Reese hopped on Twitter and captioned the post, “A joke.”
Texas teammate Alexis Morris then proposed another option other than the White House. “Michelle Obama, can we (LSU National Champs) come [to] celebrate our win at your house?” Morris tweeted, to wich Reese cosigned saying, “That’s the tweet.”
Aside from the team, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith also agreed with the LSU player, “Hey, Angel Reese,” he started. “I mean absolutely zero disrespect to the first lady, but you are 1000 percent correct. This is a bad suggestion. Runner-ups don’t get invited to the White House. Why are we trying to change it now? I completely agree with you, Angel.”
Despite that, Reese eventually came around and shared that the team will actually head to the White House:
“In the beginning we were hurt. It was emotional because we know how hard we worked all year for everything,” she began. The Maryland native continued, “You don’t get that experience [to go to the White House] ever… and I know my team probably wants to go for sure, and my coaches are supportive of that, so I’m going to do what’s best for the team, and we’ve decided we’re gonna go. I’m team player. I’m gonna do what’s best for the team… I’m the captain.”
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