Florida State said Friday night that regular-season opponent Delaware State did, in fact, meet scholarship requirements, allowing the Seminoles' victory to count toward the NCAA's bowl-eligibility rules.
The Seminoles' statement was issued a day after their bowl eligibility came under scrutiny on Reddit, where a user questioned the number of scholarship players on FCS Delaware State.
The teams met Nov. 18, with FSU winning 77-6.
Florida State finished 6-6 this season and will play Southern Miss in the Walk-On's Independence Bowl on Wednesday. It will mark the 36th straight season the Seminoles will appear in a bowl game.
On Thursday, a fan who moderates the college football section of Reddit posted data that he said he obtained from Delaware State that appeared to show the football team didn't use enough scholarship funds to meet an NCAA minimum for FCS teams to count toward FBS bowl eligibility. NCAA rules state that for any FCS win to count toward bowl eligibility, the FCS program must have at least 90 percent of its team on scholarship.
The Reddit user said Delaware State was only at 87 percent.
However, Florida State said the information gathered did not include academic scholarships, which are allowed to count toward the overall scholarship total.
"Florida State has received confirmation from Delaware State that the 90 percent requirement is satisfied for the 2017 season, allowing the victory to be used in determining bowl eligibility," the school said in the statement. "Media reports suggesting otherwise failed to account for a long-standing NCAA rules interpretation that permits institutions to use academic scholarships and other forms of non-athletics institutional aid received by student-athletes in the computation of this requirement. These media reports represent incomplete information, as they only reflect athletics scholarships received."
The number of FBS vs. FCS games has skyrocketed since the NCAA approved 12-game schedules for major college teams in 2005. As the number of bowls also grew, the NCAA allowed FBS teams to count a victory against an FCS team toward six-win bowl eligibility if that FCS team had used 90 percent of its allotted scholarship money. The idea behind the rule was to deter FBS schools from playing FCS schools that had no chance to compete with an FBS school. In reality, though, most FBS-FCS games are lopsided contests.
Game contracts between FBS and FCS schools often stipulate that the FCS team meets the scholarship requirement. But typically that is a good-faith agreement.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.