The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.

It’s a long-standing-though-unofficial tradition that championship teams in major U.S. sports receive an invitation to visit the White House to celebrate and pose for photo ops with the sitting president.

The custom has been tainted in recent years by political overtones, however, as the Golden State Warriors refused to visit former President Donald Trump after their championship in 2017 and 2018. They of course had no problem visiting Joe Biden following their 2022 victory, permanently alienating a huge number of NBA fans.

Now the Georgia Bulldogs, winners of the last two College Football Playoff National Championships, have not received an invitation after their blowout 65-7 win over TCU in January. Is it because of politics?

They were not invited in 2022 either, but that was blamed on COVID protocols. What’s Joe’s excuse this year?

Some players are taking notice, including defensive lineman Warren Brinson:

No invite to the White House is crazy😓@POTUS

— WarrenBrinson™️ (@warrenbrinson17) February 20, 2023

It’s not like nobody has made the administration aware of the situation. Dawgs Daily reports:

A group of Georgia representatives such as Earl LeRoy “Buddy” Carter as well as Georgia Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock signed a request to have the back-to-back National Champions hosted in White House.

The response from the White House: crickets. The ritual used to be fun, remember?

For the second straight year, the Biden administration has not invited the Georgia Bulldogs to the White House.

A look back on the last time a college football team has visited the White House: pic.twitter.com/Gc2JdR2qBt

— Old Row Sports (@OldRowSports) February 21, 2023

The question is why hasn’t Biden invited the team to celebrate? Could it be that it’s because Georgia is a red state, and it’s in the South, and its voters failed to elect one of Biden’s favorite progressives, Stacey Abrams, as governor? This guy thinks so:

The Georgia Bulldogs are not going to be invited to the White House because they are from the South.

— TrueGrit (@MichaelTruGrit) February 21, 2023

It’s possible that the lack of an invitation isn’t political at all, but part of an administration’s job is public relations, and once again this group has done a terrible job. Whether or not the snub is intentional, it certainly looks that way. Biden meanwhile has proven on many occasions that he can be incredibly petty and mean-spirited, so it’s easy to understand why some would come to that conclusion.

For Coach Kirby Smart and all those ‘Dawg players, it’s a slap in the face as many of them have likely dreamed of the moment they’d stand together in the White House with their well-earned trophy. Biden may eventually reach out and invite them, but the damage has already been done.

Meanwhile, even if Joe won’t celebrate Georgia football, we will: