Florida State Seminoles
Florida State Seminoles As always, legendary head coach Bobby Bowden expects to have his Seminoles in the hunt for an ACC title, but could this be the year that Florida State makes a strong push for a BCS National Championship?

One thing is for sure, there will be no problem with motivation.

Odds makers are calling the Noles a 20/1 shot to win the BCS and calling them one of the favorites at about 2.5/1 to win the conference.

Schedule makers have not made things easy for the Seminoles. Florida State has a brutal schedule as 11 teams they face this year went to bowl games in 2008. They open the season with Miami, close in the "Swamp" against the Gators. In between, they head to BYU, Boston College, Clemson and Wake Forest.

Off the field, the Seminoles are dealing with the possible loss of 14 wins from 2006 and 2007 because of a ten sport wide cheating scandal involving an online music
course. If the Noles do indeed lose the wins, this will likely be Bowden's last season on the side line in Tallahassee. At 79, Bowden continues to go back and forth with Penn State's Joe Paterno for the all-time wins lead.

Paterno currently leads 383-382 and if Bowden loses 14 wins he will certainly be out of the race.

Offensively, FSU returns quarterback Christian Ponder, running back Jermaine Thomas and wide receiver Taiwan Easterling. Ponder racked up 2,006 passing yards for the Noles last season, while Thomas amassed 482 rushing yards and Easterling 322 receiving yards.

The Seminoles success is going to depend on their defense. In 2008, the Noles were 15th in the nation on defense, however, after key losses, there may be some growing pains.

Hopes for FSU winning a BCS title may be a little far fetched, but a conference championship is more realistic for what might turn out to be Bobby Bowden's final season as head coach.