AngularJS: ng-model-options for select dropdown not working

I desperately need to use the following tag in my html

ng-model-options="{ allowInvalid: true }"

However, whenever I have seen this online, it has been for an input field, and not a select dropdown like this

<select name="somename" id="someid" ng-model="foo" ng-model-options="{allowInvalid: true}"  validate-input>
 <option></option> 
 <option></option>
</select>

Is there a way to make that directive work for that kind of ng-model?

Edit: the following post is more or less why I need it if anyone is wondering github $parsers error

Maybe something in the controller to fix it? There is a custom directive attached to this as well.