Florida State is slated to face Southern Miss in the Independence Bowl on Dec. 27. The Seminoles had a disastrous season, but their 6-6 record — gotten via a rescheduled game against ULM after Jimbo Fisher had already left for Texas A&M — qualified them. It extended their bowl streak to a record 36 years, though the NCAA’s record books didn’t view it that way.
And now the NCAA might have another issue with FSU’s bowl streak.
Reddit’s college football page, r/CFB, presented data Thursday that calls into question whether Florida State is actually eligible for a bowl game. Let’s go through it.
FBS teams get to count one FCS win toward bowl eligibility.
The Noles were 5-6 against FBS opposition, but they also had a blowout win of Delaware State, a 2-9 FCS team from the MEAC.
That FCS win has to meet a seldom-cited requirement to count toward a bowl.
It has to come against a team that has used at least 90 percent of the FCS maximum scholarship total (63 per team) “during a rolling two-year period.”
I can’t think of a time this rule has been used to invalidate an FCS win [update: a commenter points out it happened to USF in 2003]. There are a few 6-6 teams every year that have beaten FCS teams, though.
Under this rule, it appeared Delaware State shouldn’t have counted toward FSU’s eligibility.
Reddit went to Delaware State and got the numbers, finding it came up barely short.
SB Nation reached out to various DSU officials to attempt to confirm those numbers but didn’t hear anything back. FSU and the Independence Bowl declined comment to the Tampa Bay Times.
Thursday night, reporter Brett McMurphy confirmed the game will go on despite a “monumental error that should have been caught at three levels: the school, conference and NCAA.”
Florida State did not meet the NCAA requirement for bowl eligibility but because of a “monumental" oversight by FSU, the...
Posted by Brett McMurphy on Thursday, December 21, 2017
But wait! Friday night, FSU clarified that it is actually bowl eligible after all.
The Noles say that Delaware State told them that everything was kosher, and it was actually a matter of internet sleuths not accounting for the way scholarships are allocated.
Statement from FSU regarding that eligibility deal: pic.twitter.com/NMh0Dvoa4k
— Corey Clark (@Corey_Clark) December 23, 2017
Should this even matter anyway, though?
FSU paid Delaware State. Not FSU's fault Delaware State didn't spend the money on scholarships. #checkcleared
— Bud Elliott (@BudElliott3) December 22, 2017
Anyway, doesn't matter. Reason we didn't cover this is because it was technical nonsense to be waived away, as expected. Carry on.