The top football handicap betting experts are studying the college football picks matchups. Meanwhile Bodog takes a look at how off-field problems could affect the FSU Seminoles.

Could bad news for Florida State’s athletic department actually turn into a positive for the 2009 Seminole football team? I would argue yes.

But let’s backtrack a minute. I’m speaking of a letter from the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions that was released Thursday. It defended its original penalties imposed on the school’s athletic program, which includes vacating up to 14 victories from the football team.

Losing those 14 wins would be crushing to coach Bobby Bowden as he continues to jockey with Penn State’s Joe Paterno for the all-time wins record in college football – Paterno currently leads 383-382.

Obviously if that lead suddenly was 15 wins for JoePa, that’s not going to be a total that Bowden is going to make up in the limited time he has left on the sideline. It’s not like the Nittany Lions are going to go winless in a season any time soon.

The vacation of wins (in nine other sports too) is the only penalty Florida State is appealing as a result of a widespread cheating scandal involving an online music course in 2006 and 2007, seasons in which FSU won 14 total games in football. School officials know what the record means to Bowden. A final decision isn’t likely to come until August, with FSU still having to respond to the letter and oral arguments heard from both sides by the Infractions Appeal Committee.

“Joe would not want to win this thing the way they [NCAA] are doing this,” Bowden told reporters.

You might be asking how this could possibly affect FSU from a betting standpoint – the ‘Noles are 20/1 on Bodog to win this season’s BCS National Championship. But let’s say that this penalty is enforced. That would probably ensure that 2009 will be the final season that Bowden would coach. In January he signed just a one-year extension for this year, though he has an option for a second season. Bowden turns 80 in November and has said he has a date in mind as to when it he will hang it up.

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Wouldn’t playing on Bowden’s final team be quite a bit of motivation for those FSU players? Shoot, the coach might even use it to fire his guys up at times. And it’s not like the 2009 Seminoles don’t have a shot to run the table. It’s a long shot, especially with that season finale at Florida. But FSU could be a favorite in every other game, with the biggest tests likely coming in the season opener against Miami and games at BYU, North Carolina and Clemson.

It would be too bad for Bowden’s possible final season to start with this hanging over the program, but maybe Bowden can perform one last bit of coaching magic and use it to his advantage. Even if the coach is too proud to use his swan song to motivate his kids, you can be sure the other coaches on the staff would harp and it and that the players would want to send Bowden out in style. Sounds like a rallying point to me.

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