Georgia Bulldogs decline invitation to visit White House after winning national title

After winning the 2023 national title, the Georgia Bulldogs announced on Tuesday that they are declining Joe Biden’s invitation to visit the White House on June 12 for “College Athlete Day.”

“The University of Georgia first received on May 3 an invitation for the Bulldog football team to visit the White House on June 12,” Georgia’s athletic association said in a statement. 

“Unfortunately, the date suggested is not feasible given the student-athlete calendar and time of year,” the statement continued without providing any details of the schedule conflict.

The national champions of college and professional sports leagues tend to visit the White House after the nationwide event. However, the winning teams have not been invited to meet with the president since 2019, due to the coronavirus pandemic. The winning team for the 2020 season was Alabama and Georgia won the 2021 campaign. Biden hosted the NBA champion Golden State Warriors in January.

Georgia played against the TCU Horned Frogs in January at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, defeating them 65-7 and earning them their second straight national championship title. 

In February, President Biden said that it “looked forward to welcoming” the Georgia Bulldogs to the White House. However, many fans have criticized that it took Biden several months to send out an actual invitation to the team. 

The Louisiana State University women’s basketball team and University of Connecticut men’s basketball team, both national champions as well, will meet with Biden on May 26, the White House said in a statement on Monday. 

It was unclear whether the LSU team would accept the invitation to the White House after First Lady Jill Biden in April suggested inviting the runner-up team, the Iowa Hawkeyes, to the meeting as well. 

“I know we’ll have the champions come to the White House, we always do,” the first lady said after watching the game. “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.”

Fans and some of the LSU players, including star Angel Reese, criticized the idea. 

“If we were to lose, we would not be getting invited to the White House,” Reese said. “Remember she made a comment about how both teams should be invited because of sportsmanship. I’m like, ‘Are you saying that because of what I did?’