A Florida college sent football offers to 100 people. The team didn’t exist
Over 100 student-athletes received offers to play football at Florida Gulf Coast University. The thing is, the school doesn’t have a football team.
Located near Fort Myers, FGCU is a Division I program with a variety of varsity sports including basketball, beach volleyball and cross-country. The only way to play football is at the non-scholarship, club level.
The school, which gained national attention under the name “Dunk City” in 2013, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon.
“A non-employee, volunteer with the football sport club has extended “offers” to come to FGCU to and play football to more than 100 individuals across the country,” the statement read. “This has been done without FGCU’s knowledge or sanction, and has caused a great deal of confusion.”
One player, a senior linebacker from Georgia named Brendan Jackson, took to Twitter to express his excitement after receiving an “offer.”
Jackson tagged the team’s coach Kevin VanDuser, who maintains he only offered roster spots, in the tweet as well. Since news of the faux offers became public, numerous people have shared their support of VanDuser via Twitter.
“There is a wealth of misinformation happening,” VanDuser tweeted Wednesday night. “... We offered kids we liked roster spots for next year and nothing else.”
