Florida State Throws Shade At Marco Rubio

A few months ago, Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio cracked a joke about Florida State University. Now his chickens are coming home to roost. Rubio, you see, is a Miami native, and got his bachelor's at the University of Florida. So naturally, he loves his Gators. There’s a longstanding rivalry between the University of Florida and Florida State, and on Saturday, the Seminoles trounced the Gators. So Seminoles fans are taking Rubio to task on Twitter for his earlier diss.

“I don’t have anything against Florida State,” Rubio said mockingly in a radio interview in September. “I think there has to be a school where people that can’t get into Florida can go to college. And that’s why we have Florida State.”

Ouch. Now, it’s a time-honored tradition in American politics to jump off-topic every now and again and talk sports. Rubio was simply poking fun at a school which happens to be a rival of his alma mater, and there’s nothing wrong with that. And yet the phrasing of his jab was a tad mean-spirited. He basically insulted the entire student body of Florida State. Not surprisingly, many of those students took offense at the suggestion that they only enrolled there because they weren’t smart enough to get into a more prestigious college.

But on Saturday, Florida State won in a 27-2 blowout over Florida. Since then, Seminoles fans have delighted in giving Rubio his just desserts. The briefest — and in a way, the most effective — comment came from the Florida State Seminoles’ Twitter account.

Other Seminoles fans joined in on the fun.

Rubio hasn’t commented on the game. As of Sunday, his most recent tweet promoted a sale on official Rubio for President merchandise.

Needless to say, the chances that any of this will have a discernible effect on the presidential race are exceedingly small. It’s worth noting, however, that Florida State has a student body of over 40,000. In the 2000 presidential election, George W. Bush won Florida by around 1,000 votes — and that’s the state that handed him the White House. If, God help us, the 2016 election comes down to a recount in Florida, Rubio may find himself regretting his sports ribbing.