Florida Gulf Coast University’s club football team is selling offers it can’t back up

We don’t have any pictures of FGCU’s football program. Because they don’t officially have one. | Photo by David Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Recruits are getting “offers” from FGCU, but club teams can’t offer much.

Over the past week, high school football players across the country have taken to Twitter to share the good news. They’ve received an offer to play for Florida Gulf Coast University.

One hitch: FGCU doesn’t have a varsity football program.

The university released a statement Wednesday clarifying that it has no official connection to the NFCA club football team in which its students participate. It also explained, in no uncertain terms, that head coach Kevin Van Duser is not employed by the school and that any offers to join the team had nothing to do with the institution itself, its admissions process, or its NCAA athletic programs. While these student-athletes are free to find their way to the gridiron at FGCU’s Fort Myers campus, they’d have to apply to the university, earn admittance, pay tuition, and then join a group more akin to a padded-up fraternity or student union than an actual Division I football program.

The thing is, FGCU’s offers look legit

Head coach Kevin Van Duser, creator of four different LinkedIn profiles (none of which mention the university), hit the recruiting trail hard in hopes of luring athletes to Florida’s southwest coast. At first glance, his Eagles’ club team materials look pretty much identical to those you’d find from other small school football programs. Here’s the offer Tennessee lineman Zach Bone received from NAIA Cumberland University:

And here’s the image recruits reportedly selected by Van Duser received:

That’s pretty legit! The Eagles certainly look the part, but there’s one major detail that undermines this professional pitch to play amateur football. All of FGCU’s promos feature, typically in a tiny font, a headline that says “Florida Gulf Coast Club Football” — just like the headline atop the banner image of Van Duser’s Twitter profile. It’s also right at the beginning of the team’s Twitter bio, too.

There’s another dead giveaway as well. No varsity collegiate program would dare incur the NCAA’s wrath by talking about any high school players who haven’t already faxed their letters of intent to accept a scholarship and join the team. Thanks to the strict rules around recruiting and how/when coaches can contact prospective athletes, Division I programs don’t acknowledge recruits until signing day. Retweeting mentions from high school sophomores would earn an inexperienced social media intern an immediate firing at most schools.

There are plenty of reasons it’s plain to see FGCU — which offers 15 Division I varsity athletic programs —isn’t offering a Division I football experience. A quick search through Twitter bios, carefully placed mentions of the team’s club status, or even just a Google search of “Florida Gulf Coast Football” will do the trick.

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Van Duser is clearly hustling to make an impact with students in a way few (if any) club coaches have. If his Twitter mentions are any indication, he’s captured the attention of several recruits across the social media spectrum.

This slick presentation rings hollow. The use of the terminology “offered” obscures the lines between an NCAA (or NAIA) program and what Van Duser is selling. The only thing being offered to these student-athletes is a chance to play football in a non-varsity setting against a handful of like-minded players across the country. An FGCU offer isn’t going to be a lineman’s ticket to a cost-free education and potential step up to the next level. It’s an invitation to pay tuition in Fort Myers and play for a program that may be less organized than their high school team.

That makes it a little cruel for the budding high school athlete who receives his first college offer, then realizes it’s not actually an offer at all — more of a suggestion. FGCU’s club team is handing out Publisher’s Clearinghouse envelopes that say these kids may have already won $1 million. The overlooked recruits who buy in get their hopes crushed when they realize, nope, they’ve got to sign up for a whole bunch of nonsense just to have a chance to buy the Eagles’ lottery ticket.

If you’re a teenage football player and Florida Gulf Coast wants you, that’s nice! But the football program can’t help you with admissions or put you on scholarship. The Eagles don’t have an NCAA program to sell. They made it clear in their release they have no intention of adding one.

If you’re a casual football player who doesn’t want to leave the game behind, wouldn’t mind going to school near the beach, and thinks these jersey are actually pretty solid (they are) ...

then Van Duser might be the right guy to talk to.