Bobby Bowden
Bobby Bowden Legendary Seminoles head coach Bobby Bowden will coach his final game at Florida State in the Gator Bowl on New Year's Day.

Bowl officials have announced that FSU State will play the West Virginia Mountaineer in Jacksonville on January 1st. West Virginia is the school Bowden left in 1976 to come to Florida State. The Noles began their 28-year streak of bowl games in 1982 when they defeated the Mountaineers 32-12 at the Gator Bowl.

Normally, Florida State would have likely fallen to a lower bowl with its 6-6 record, but the possibility of keeping Bowden in Florida for his final game matched against his former school was too much for Gator Bowl officials to ignore.

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80-year-old Bowden announced earlier in the week that he would retire after the Seminoles' bowl game. Florida State has a life-time record of 5-0-1 in the Gator Bowl, including two wins over West Virginia.

"We got excited when we knew we could possibly pick Florida State," said Gator Bowl chairman Dan Murphy. "We couldn't think of a better way for coach Bowden to go out."

Bowden is second on the list of all-time winningest coach behind only Penn State's Joe Paterno. Forty-two of Bowden's 388 career wins came at West Virginia between 1970-1975.

"It's probably the best thing that's happened to us all week," Florida State athletic director Randy Spetman said. "We can celebrate coach Bowden's last game with all our fans."