The 2017 Florida State Seminoles football team represented Florida State University in the sport of American football during the 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Seminoles competed in the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference and were led by eighth-year head coach Jimbo Fisher until he left to coach at Texas A&M before the final game of the regular season. They were then coached by interim head coach Odell Haggins. Home games were played at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida.
In 2016, the Seminoles won 10 games for the fifth straight season and appeared in the Orange Bowl, a fifth consecutive appearance in a major bowl game. Running back Dalvin Cook, defensive end DeMarcus Walker, offensive tackle Roderick Johnson and cornerback Marquez White went on to be selected in the NFL draft.
Prior to the start of the season, Deondre Francois, Jacques Patrick, Cam Akers, Nyqwan Murray, Landon Dickerson, and Cole Minshew were named preseason All-ACC offensive selections while Derwin James, Tarvarus McFadden, Derrick Nnadi, Josh Sweat, Brian Burns, and Matthew Thomas were named preseason All-ACC defensive selections. In the pre-season media poll, Florida State was picked to finish first in the ACC Atlantic and win the conference title and Francois was picked as runner-up for ACC Player of the Year while Alec Eberle, McFadden, and James were named to the pre-season All-ACC team.
In the opening game against Alabama, quarterback Deondre Francois suffered a season ending knee injury which resulted in true freshman James Blackman being named the starter for the remainder of the season, leading to the program's worst start since 1976 although the Seminoles went on to become bowl eligible for the 36th consecutive year. Following the game against Florida, Jimbo Fisher resigned as coach; associate coach Odell Haggins was named interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
On December 21, 2017, a user on Reddit made a viral post questioning the bowl eligibility of Florida State in relation to their matchup against Delaware State. The user claimed to have received data on Delaware State's roster and scholarship allocation and determined that Delaware State had only 87% of their roster currently on athletic scholarship; the NCAA requires that an FCS team have at least 90% of its roster on scholarship in order for an FBS opponent to count a victory against an FCS team towards their bowl eligibility. The post was later echoed by college football analyst Brett McMurphy in a Facebook post.
However, Florida State refuted the post one day later, pointing out that while Delaware State had only offered athletic scholarships to 87% of its roster, it offered academic scholarships to other players, which was not mentioned in the original reports. Academic scholarships also counted towards the 90% scholarship threshold, and Delaware State offered enough in conjunction to their athletic scholarship allocation to allow the Seminoles' win versus the Hornets to count towards bowl eligibility. Florida State would defeat Southern Mississippi in the Independence Bowl six days later.
Five Seminoles were chosen in the 2018 NFL draft: