A Reddit investigation proved Florida State technically isn't bowl-eligible

Florida State is slated to face Southern Miss in the Independence Bowl in 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 has 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. There are a few 6-6 teams every year that have beaten FCS teams, though.

Under this rule, Delaware State shouldn’t have counted toward FSU’s eligibility.

Reddit went to Delaware State and got the numbers, finding they came up 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.”

Of course it’s too late to do anything about it.

Common sense dictates that the NCAA was never going to force FSU out of the game and slide in another team that hadn’t even been practicing (Buffalo, UTSA, and Western Michigan were also bowl-eligible but not selected by any game), days before kickoff.

Should this even matter anyway, though?

FSU paid Delaware State. Not FSU's fault Delaware State didn't spend the money on scholarships. #checkcleared
Anyway, doesn't matter. Reason we didn't cover this is because it was technical nonsense to be waived away, as expected. Carry on.
— Bud Elliott (@BudElliott3) December 22, 2017