{"id":378624,"date":"2026-08-22T20:56:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T20:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/378624\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T20:56:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T20:56:06","slug":"fsu-football-espn-projects-florida-state-vs-south-florida-in-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/378624\/","title":{"rendered":"FSU Football: ESPN projects Florida State vs. South Florida in bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Aug. 22, 2026, 3:45 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><a data-autotag=\"06ee9050-e06d-4638-a179-a4d7f17000df\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/ncaaf\/teams\/florida-state-seminoles\/3409\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Florida State<\/a> has missed the postseason in each of the past two years, but ESPN\u2019s first <a href=\"https:\/\/go.skimresources.com\/?id=83224X1595658&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.espn.com%2Fcollege-football%2Fstory%2F_%2Fid%2F49661442%2F2026-27-preseason-college-football-playoff-cfp-bowl-projections&amp;xcust=SC1-SFSU&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Ffsuwire.usatoday.com%2Fstory%2Fsports%2Fcollege%2Ffsu%2Ffootball%2F2026%2F08%2F22%2Ffsu-football-espn-usf-bowl-2026%2F91423174007%2F\" data-v-afl=\"\" data-t-l=\"\u2691f:b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bowl projections<\/a> for the 2026 season have the Seminoles returning to the postseason.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">ESPN analysts Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach both project Florida State to reach a bowl game this season and have the Seminoles facing the same opponent. In their preseason College Football Playoff and bowl projections, each analyst matched FSU with in-state program South Florida, though in different postseason destinations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Schlabach projects Florida State to meet USF in the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. The game is scheduled for Dec. 18 at 2:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Bonagura also has the Seminoles facing the <a data-autotag=\"68e4d28b-84ce-42ab-a403-c7baf658516a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/ncaaf\/teams\/south-florida-bulls\/4009\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Bulls<\/a> but sends the matchup north to the Freedom Mortgage Military Bowl at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland. That game will be played Dec. 28 at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Both bowls have access to teams from the ACC and American Conference, making Florida State-South Florida a possible matchup within their respective selection structures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">For Florida State, simply appearing in either game would represent a return to bowl eligibility after two difficult seasons. The Seminoles went 2-10 in 2024 before improving to 5-7 last year, leaving Mike Norvell\u2019s program without a postseason appearance in consecutive seasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">A meeting with South Florida would also renew an in-state series that has been dormant for a decade. The programs last met in 2016 at Raymond James Stadium, when No. 13 Florida State defeated the Bulls 55-35 behind a 267-yard rushing performance from Dalvin Cook.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">While Bonagura and Schlabach disagree on where Florida State could spend bowl season, their preseason projections share the more important takeaway for the Seminoles: both expect FSU to clear the six-win threshold and return to the postseason in 2026.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_cp_cw_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/87125517007-renewalby-andersonlogo.png\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aug. 22, 2026, 3:45 p.m. ET Florida State has missed the postseason in each of the past two&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31,28,30,29,112508,5114,303,298,16279,9076,299,40743,336,924,12964,4532,49,8353,300,34],"class_list":["post-378624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-accessfree","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-sourcefsu-wire","tag-sstssportscollegefsufootball","tag-sstsnfootball","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagchicago-bulls","tag-tagcollege-football-playoff","tag-tagcollege-sports","tag-tagdalvin-cook","tag-tagespn-inc","tag-tagflorida-state-seminoles-football","tag-tagncaa-american-athletic-conference","tag-tagncaa-atlantic-coast-conference","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagsouth-florida-bulls-football","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}