Your Thoughts Thursday: Send FSU to Tampa for Bowl Season

Only one game remains in Florida State’s 2019 football season. Where and who that game will be played against should be known this weekend.

This week, we asked our social media followers where they would prefer to see FSU for bowl season. We listed four potential destinations.

Of the 145 accounts that responded, 65 percent want to see the Seminoles in Tampa for the Gasparilla Bowl. 15 percent want the Seminoles to play in the Birmingham Bowl and 14 percent want them in the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit. Only 6 percent want to see FSU make a second straight bowl trip to Shreveport for the Independence Bowl.

Our Take
The desire to see Florida State in the Tampa Bay area is probably due to proximity, but we’ll go against the grain. If it were up to me, I’d put FSU in the Quick Lane Bowl against a Big Ten school.

In all of the other listed match-ups, the Seminoles would almost certainly be playing a Group of 5 opponent. A trip to Detroit against an evenly-matched Big Ten school would be more intriguing.

ESPN’s Mark Schlabach currently projects the Seminoles to be taking on Michigan State in the Quick Lane Bowl. Although it wasn’t a great season for the Spartans, they did spend some time in the AP top 25 and have been largely inept on offense this season.

Beating a good team from a non-power conference probably wouldn’t have a great look for FSU, but losing to one would look bad. It’s also not that often that Florida State plays a team from the Big Ten. Over the last 10 years, it happened just once — against Michigan in the 2016 Orange Bowl.

Potential opponents for FSU in Detroit would be Michigan State or Illinois. FSU hasn’t played Michigan State since winning a home-and-home in the late 1980s. It has never played against Illinois. The Fighting Illini are one of five Big Ten schools that FSU has never played.

Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson. Like The Daily Nole on Facebook. To pitch an idea, author a post or to learn more about The Daily Nole, email Mike Ferguson at Mike@TheDailyNole.com.