Florida State reschedules its home game with ULM, ostensibly to preserve its bowl streak

Florida State has a problem. The Noles have started the season 3-5 after a close win over Syracuse. Bowl eligibility is anything but a lock with Clemson and a rivalry tilt with Florida to go. The way FSU is playing, not even a hapless Florida offense can be viewed as a slam dunk win.

The Noles only had 11 scheduled games this year, thanks to Hurricane Irma forcing the cancellation of the second game of the season against ULM. It’s now back on.

Last week, it was reported that the Noles were strongly considering adding ULM on that vacant date after the formal regular season, according to comments AD Stan WIlcox made to The Orlando Sentinel.

“We’re working on a release that will come out next week,” Wilcox said after an athletics board meeting Wednesday afternoon.

“[Coach] Jimbo [Fisher] and I have talked about it. And we’ve talked to a lot of other people. We want to wait until after this week, and then put something out next week.”

FSU would host Louisiana-Monroe in Doak Campbell Stadium on Dec. 2, a day reserved for college football conference championship games.

But a local event — Tallahassee’s Winter Festival, scheduled from 3-10 p.m. on the same day — has complicated logistical plans to have law enforcement in place for the football game.

If bowl eligibility is still in the balance heading into the makeup with ULM, the optics will be that the Noles added a previously cancelled game back on the schedule just to preserve the bowl streak that has endured since 1981 (the nation’s longest).

There’s also the benefit to local business in Tallahassee, and it’s unlikely that the team would say no to more practice and game reps, particularly if it’s not bowl-bound. But it’ll still be kinda funny if FSU makes a middling bowl thanks to a win against a Sun Belt team.