Looks like Florida State should not be bowl eligible this year
Florida State is as common to bowl season as gifts at Christmas, but it appears this is the year its streak should have ended.
The Florida State Seminoles started this season with high hopes, but an injury to quarterback Deondre Francois in the season opener helped lead to a disappointing 6-6 finish. Head coach Jimbo Fisher departed for Texas A&M prior to the regular season finale against Louisiana Monroe, a game that was postponed from September due to Hurricane Irma and the Seminoles won to reach a .500 record.
Six wins are what it takes to be bowl-eligible, with some leeway for five-win teams to enter the mix if there aren’t enough six-win teams to fill the myriad of games. In any case, the Seminoles will play in their record 36th straight bowl game next Wednesday, against Southern Miss in the Independence Bowl.
But a Reddit user has taken a closer look at Florida State’s bowl eligibility this year, and poked a big hole in it.
One of the Seminoles’ six wins came against Delaware State, an FCS opponent, on Nov. 18. For a win over an FCS team to be countable toward bowl eligibility, that school has to have awarded at least 90 percent of potential scholarships to players. Delaware State’s own data shows that was not the case, thus Florida State can’t count their 77-6 win toward their six victories for bowl eligibility.
At this point, there’s no turning back from Florida State playing in a bowl. But technically, they are only 5-6 against FBS competition and three teams that had the required six wins against FBS competition (Buffalo, Western Michigan and Texas-San Antonio) were left out of bowls this year.
Because of “monumental” oversight FSU did not meet NCAA requirement for bowl eligibility, but will still play in @IndyBowl. “This should have been caught at 3 levels: FSU, ACC & NCAA,” a source said. “But it’s too late now” 1st reported by @RedditCFB https://t.co/fcxi8GKyeI
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 21, 2017
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As Brett McMurphy suggests, there are three levels where Florida State’s technical lack of bowl eligibility should have been caught. But the ACC benefits from its members going to a bowl, and the school, of course, gets some extra exposure. If you’re the NCAA, the name brand of the Seminoles will bring more attention to a mid-tier bowl than a team out of the MAC or Conference USA would.