In their first season of FBS competition, Georgia Southern is off to an impressive 8-3 start, and a win against ULM this weekend will bring them the outright Sun Belt Conference title.
Back in early November, Zach wrote an article urging the NCAA to "not leave Georgia Southern hanging". The NCAA wasn't listening, and today they denied Georgia Southern's waiver request to compete in a bowl game.
On the heels of their success, Georgia Southern submitted a waiver to the NCAA asking to participate in bowl season but athletic director Tom Kleinlein recently announced that the NCAA's legislative review committee's decision to deny the waiver.
Jump a class, reload with a whole new coaching staff, (perhaps) win the conference in your first year...and none of that is impressive enough to overlook an arbitrary rule to recognize the accomplishments of Willie Fritz and his guys.
According to the NCAA, bending the rules to allow Georgia Southern into the field of bowl teams would prevent a worthy team of making a bowl trip. Evidently eight or nine wins isn't enough to justify a bowl trip over a six win team? C'mon man.
Kleinlein did share with the Savannah Morning News that he plans to file an appeal to the NCAA membership committee and expects to hear a decision on that appeal later this week, or early next week.
Until then, keep your fingers crossed.
What these guys have been able to accomplish in a "transitional year" is extremely impressive and the staff and team deserve a bowl trip.