It was a rough season for Florida State, having to deal with academic fraud & player suspensions & Jenn Sterger jumping off the bandwagon. But the Seminoles have come up with a cure - start off 2008 against not one, but two I-AA opponents.

The ORLANDO SENTINEL reports that FSU will begin next year’s slate with two home games against Western Carolina and Chattanooga. Both teams hail from the Southern Conference, home of Michigan-mashing Appalachian State. But don’t expect any similar miracles from the Catamounts & Mocs, who went a combined 3-21 last year. (Great nicknames, though.)

The soft slate is a change of pace from the usual early-season tests scheduled by the Seminoles. In last season’s opener, Bobby Bowden’s boys lost to son Terry’s Clemson squad 24-18 on Labor Day, while FSU’s two previous season starts saw victories against the Miami Hurricanes.

Bowden tries to explain the change of plans: “We had to give up a Monday night game, which I hated to give up because of the (lost) exposure. But there’s no way we would be ready to play a ranked team at that time.”

What, were all the Sun Belt teams locked up? Would it have been so hard to get a lower-tier 1-A school like Louisiana-Monroe to show up at Doak Campbell Stadium?

On second thought, never mind.