Florida State did not meet the NCAA requirement for bowl eligibility but because of a “monumental" oversight by FSU, the ACC and NCAA, the Seminoles will still play in a bowl for a 36th consecutive season.
FSU finished 6-6, but its win against FCS-member Delaware State should not have counted toward the Seminoles’ bowl eligibility. Delaware State did not have enough scholarship grants-in-aid over a two-year period, as required by NCAA bowl eligibility rules, leaving FSU with only five "bowl-eligible" wins. Reddit College Football first reported Delaware State did not meet the NCAA’s scholarship requirements to count toward bowl eligibility and verified that information with DSU.
FSU will play Southern Miss Wednesday in the Independence Bowl and will arrive in Shreveport, La., on Saturday.
“This monumental error should have been caught at three levels: the school, conference and NCAA,” a bowl industry source said. “It’s too late to do anything now, they’ll still play in the game. If it was funny, it would be a comedy of errors.”
It’s certainly not a laughing matter to Buffalo, Western Michigan or UTSA. Those three schools all qualified for a bowl, but were not selected. If FSU, the ACC or NCAA would have caught the scholarship discrepancy before bowl bids were extended, one of those three schools would have gone bowling instead of FSU.
"FSU should have caught this," another source said. "And it's complete incompetence on the part of the NCAA. It's their job to monitor this stuff."
The oversight is especially painful for Buffalo coach Lance Leipold. The Bulls won their final three games to get to six wins but were not selected for a bowl.
“It’s all together disappointing, especially after watching some of these early bowl games,” 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.”
Officials from Florida State, the ACC and NCAA did not respond for comment.
Multiple bowl and industry sources said there’s basically nothing that can be done this late about the oversight, so FSU goes bowling while three other more deserving teams stay home.
Ironically, Buffalo opens the 2018 season with Delaware State and Leipold said he’s already concerned whether the school will have enough scholarship players for the Bulls to count a win toward bowl eligibility.
