It’s been a roller coaster of a football season for Florida State, and it got a little weirder Thursday afternoon.
While the Seminoles are gearing up for their matchup with the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles in the Independence Bowl — the school’s 36th consecutive season with a bowl game — it turns out that Florida State, who finished the season at 6-6, might not be bowl eligible after all.
A Reddit College Football investigation discovered that the Seminoles’ win over FCS opponent Delaware State did not meet the NCAA requirements to qualify as a win toward bowl eligibility.
Reddit requested access to Delaware State’s scholarship statistics and discovered that Delaware State used 87 percent of its grants-and-aid toward football players, but in order for an FCS opponent to count toward bowl eligibility, the school must at least have given 90 percent of its scholarship limit to players.
With their 77-6 win over Delaware State not counting toward bowl eligibility, that leaves Florida State’s record at 5-6.
And it turns out that Reddit report was correct, but it is too late to replace Florida State with a bowl-eligible team that was left out of bowl season.
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
Of course, Delaware State wasn’t at fault. If the preseason No. 3 Seminoles thought they were going to need a win over an FCS foe to become eligible then they should have done their due diligence.
But it all works out, except for the teams that won a necessary amount of games and were forced to sit at home while five-win Florida State gets to play in a bowl game.
