The end of the college basketball season gives us a chance to review how well various college sports programs performed in both football and basketball — men’s and women’s — over the past several months. How did this college sports cycle stand out? Which schools were great? Which ones were horrible? Two of the worst schools might shock you: Auburn and Florida State.
The futile five
Five Power Four conference schools — over the past several months — failed to make a bowl game and failed to make the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments in college basketball. Those five schools: Auburn, Florida State, Rutgers, Boston College, and Stanford.
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Rutgers and Boston College not being good isn’t shocking. Stanford not making the Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament is a surprise, but with legendary coach Tara VanDerveer retired, the program is obviously in decline.
The two real shockers here are Florida State and Auburn. These two schools have established high standards and should expect far better than what happened to them on the gridiron and hardwood over the past several months.
Florida State
Florida State went 13-0 in the 2023 regular season. The Seminoles were an annual force in college football under Bobby Bowden for decades, and they were national champions under Jimbo Fisher in the 2013 season. Florida State not making a bowl game is unthinkable, and yet it has happened multiple times now under coach Mike Norvell. It is hard to be confident in the future of the program even though Norvell poduced a perfect regular season not that long ago.
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Florida State men’s basketball made the 2018 Elite Eight and then the Sweet 16 in 2021. FSU’s 2020 team was a leading contender for the Final Four before the pandemic wiped away that year’s NCAA Tournament. The FSU women have been a regular NCAA Tournament basketball team. Seeing all three programs wilt this year is hard to wrap the mind around.
Auburn
The Tigers made the Final Four last year and couldn’t even make the NCAA Tournament this year. Not making a bowl game or the NCAA Tournament in the same college sports cycle rates as a bitter disappointment on The Plains. There’s no other way to say it.
Perspective
Auburn and Florida State met in the final BCS National Championship Game in January of 2014. The two schools hitting rock-bottom in the same college sports cycle is jarring.
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Championship standard
Florida State and Auburn won multiple conference championships in football in the 2010s, and they have both won conference championships in men’s basketball this decade. This magnifies how improbable it is that both schools were among the worst in the United States in this current college sports cycle.
Florida State and realignment
Florida State, it is well-known, wants out of the ACC. This level of performance will not help the Seminoles escape their current situation. The timing for a slump could not be worse.
Auburn starting over
Auburn had to replace its football coach — Hugh Freeze with Alex Golesh — and its men’s basketball coach in the same calendar year, 2025, due to Bruce Pearl retiring. The subpar results from this college sports cycle will increase the heat on Golesh in Year 1. There won’t be too much of a honeymoon period for him. Steven Pearl endured a rough rookie season and will absolutely be expected to make the NCAA Tournament in 2027.
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Boston College
We are focusing mostly on Auburn and Florida State, but let’s offer a closing note about Boston College: While Stanford and Rutgers had teams which finished in the middle tier of their conferences (same for Auburn and FSU), BC’s football, men’s basketball, and women’s basketball teams all finished in the bottom three of the ACC in this cycle. No school had a worse cycle than Boston College, though Florida State and Auburn represent bigger overall failures given the expectations those schools have for themselves.
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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: Auburn and Florida State had brutal years in football and basketball
