The Florida State Seminoles accepted an invitation from the Konica Minolta Gator Bowl to face West Virginia on January 1, 2010 at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium in what will be the final game of Seminole head coach Bobby Bowden's storied career.

"It excites me to know that we're going to the Gator Bowl," said Bowden, who has won 288 games over the course of his 44 season as a head coach, including the last 34 at Florida State. "The first bowl I was associated with was as an assistant coach at Florida State in 1964 when we played Oklahoma in the Gator Bowl (Jan. 2, 1965).

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The Seminoles (6-6) are making their nation-leading 28th consecutive bowl appearance under Bowden, who has guided the program to 31 bowls in 34 seasons. The Gator Bowl invitation will mark the 21st time FSU will play on New Years Day or later. The current 28 consecutive bowl appearance also happened to be against West Virginia in the Gator Bowl in 1982.

"It excites me that we're going to play West Virginia, we I coached for 10 years; six as the head coach," Bowden said of the 17th-ranked Mountaineers (9-3) out of the Big East Conference. "I've seen West Virginia play two or three times this season and I'm very impressed with them."

Bobby Bowden and the Seminoles are no strangers to playing in the Gator Bowl. FSU is 5-0-1 in the game and 4-0 under Bowden, which includes two wins over the Mountaineers at the conclusion of the 1982 and 2004 seasons where the Noles won 31-12 and 30-18 respectively.

"We are extremely excited to go back to Jacksonville," said Florida State director of athletics Randy Spetman. "They've been great partners with Florida State. It is also a wonderful opportunity for coach Bowden to have his final game in the Gator Bowl against West Virginia and it gives our fans the chance to be there for this historic event."

Rick Catlett, the president of the Gator Bowl could not agree more with Spetman any more.

ranks right up there, above being one of the greatest coaches of all time," Catlett said. "To have an opportunity to give him a farewell party with 80,000 people watching is something the Gator Bowl will be very proud of."