The University of Georgia's football team, the Georgia Bulldogs, announced on Tuesday that they will not be attending Joe Biden's "College Athlete Day" at the White House on June 12, despite winning the national championship for the second consecutive year.
In a statement, Georgia's athletic association explained their decision, citing scheduling conflicts with the student-athlete calendar: "The University of Georgia first received on May 3 an invitation for the Bulldog football team to visit the White House on June 12. Unfortunately, the date suggested is not feasible given the student-athlete calendar and time of year."
Previously, there had been concerns among Georgia supporters that the team had not received a White House invitation soon enough. In January, a bipartisan group of Georgia's congressional delegation penned a letter to the White House, expressing their hope that the championship team would be honored by the President, as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Although a President Biden official confirmed in February that the White House was looking forward to welcoming the Georgia Bulldogs, the formal invitation was not extended until last week.
This news follows a recent controversy in which First Lady Jill Biden suggested inviting the Iowa women's basketball team to the White House, despite their loss to LSU in the national championship. Speaking after the game, she said, "I know we'll have the champions come to the White House, we always do. So, we hope LSU will come. But, you know, I'm going to tell Joe I think Iowa should come, too, because they played such a good game."
LSU player Angel Reese criticized the First Lady's proposal, arguing that if LSU had lost, they would not have been invited. She expressed her frustration with the comments, saying, "Stuff like that bothers me because you are a woman at the end of the day, white, black, Mexican, it doesn't matter. You're supposed to be standing behind us before anything."
Reese ultimately decided to attend the White House visit with her team on May 26, after initially declining to commit to the event.