There’s no denying that Florida State had a bad season after going 6-6. Yet despite their poor record, FSU was handed a consolation prize by the NCAA, which had them eligible for a bowl game against Southern Mississippi.
This all changed after a Reddit user called bakonydraco noticed that FSU didn’t meet the bowl requirements for bowl eligibility per Patrick Redford. One of FSU’s wins was against Delaware State, which is an FSC school that apparently did not fulfill the arcane requirement that would have made a win over them count towards bowl eligibility. A win over an FSC school would only count if that FCS school has “awarded at least 90% of the FCS scholarship limit. This bowl eligibility error was completely missed by the NCAA.
Brett McMurphy says that nothing can be done at this point because none of the other three teams reported the scholarship issue to the NCAA. Therefore, Florida State will play Southern Mississippi next week.
It’s all together disappointing, especially after watching some of these early bowl games,” [Buffalo coach Lance] Leipold told me. “We were the last team to beat Florida Atlantic (34-31 on Sept. 23) and yet, we’re sitting out. This puts another damper on what I felt our kids deserved. But it’s our responsibility next year to make sure we win enough to guarantee a bowl spot.
I can’t blame FSU, it’s a technicality that got overlooked. But you wish they would have checked it out.
Coaches of the teams who missed out have made their feelings clear. They’re very unhappy with the NCAA wrongfully awarding FSU eligibility.