2017 Independence Bowl

2017 Walk-On's Independence Bowl
42nd Independence Bowl
Southern Miss Golden Eagles Florida State Seminoles (8–4) (6–6) C-USA ACC 13 42 Head coach:  Jay Hopson Head coach:  Odell Haggins (Interim)
1 2 3 4 Total Southern Miss 6 0 7 0 13 Florida State 7 16 10 9 42
Date	December 27, 2017
Season	2017
Stadium	Independence Stadium
Location	Shreveport, Louisiana
MVP	James Blackman (QB, Florida State) & Nate Andrews (DB, Florida State)[1]
Referee	Greg Sujack (MAC)
Attendance	33,601
Payout	US$1,466,200[2]
United States TV coverage
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Dave LaMont, Ahmad Brooks, Roddy Jones
Independence Bowl  < 2016  2018 >

The 2017 Independence Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 27, 2017, at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana. The 42nd annual Independence Bowl featured the Southern Miss Golden Eagles of Conference USA against the Florida State Seminoles of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Sponsored by Walk-On's Bistreaux & Bar, the game was officially known as the Walk-On's Independence Bowl.

The contest was televised on ESPN, with kickoff at 1:30 p.m. (EST). It was one of the 2017–18 bowl games concluding the 2017 FBS football season. Florida State defeated Southern Miss, 42–13.

The game featured the Southern Miss Golden Eagles against the Florida State Seminoles.

This was the twenty-third meeting between the schools, with Florida State holding a 13–8–1 advantage. They had most recently played in 1996, when the Seminoles defeated the Golden Eagles by a score of 54–14.^[3]

On December 21, 2017, an unofficial report was published on Reddit claiming that the Seminoles were not bowl eligible due to an NCAA rule stating that for an FCS opponent to be countable towards bowl eligibility, the FCS program must have awarded 90% of the FCS scholarship limit.^[4] Delaware State, an FCS team that lost to FSU earlier in the season, did not meet the 90% threshold set by the NCAA. Without this win, FSU stood at 5–6 on the season. However, on December 22, 2017, Florida State addressed the issue and stated that Delaware State verified its scholarship situation as eclipsing the 90-percent threshold. This, FSU claims, is due to an alleged established NCAA rule interpretation, allowing academic and other non-athletic scholarships to count towards the required threshold, however they did not reference the interpreted rule.^[5] The confirmation officially gave Florida State bowl eligibility, and allowed the team to play in the Independence Bowl.