THE BOWLS DAILY REPORT : SUGAR FLORIDA vs. FLORIDA STATE, Monday : Bonuses Not All They Appear to Be

Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden woke up in trouble Wednesday when wife Ann read in the New Orleans Times-Picayune that he was receiving an $86,250 bonus for getting the Seminoles into the Sugar Bowl.

“My wife sure checked that out,” Bowden said and laughed. “Ann thought I was holding out on her.”

Most coaches have clauses in their contracts giving them bonuses for bowl appearances, and Bowden’s involves anywhere from half a month to two months salary, depending on the bowl payout. As it turns out, the paper used information from other sources that had done some math involving his total--rather than base--compensation, which is about $600,000.

As with most coaches at major state universities, Bowden’s contract is heavily skewed toward television and radio money, with only about $105,000 in base salary. Bowden’s bonus will be about $15,000.

Florida Coach Steve Spurrier’s bonus was reported to be $75,000; he’ll get $13,000.

*

Spurrier on the Nov. 26 game at Tallahassee in which the Gators blew a 31-3 lead when Florida State scored 28 fourth-quarter points in a 31-31 tie:

“I was glad they decided to tie it up because I’m not sure we could have stopped the two-point conversion at that point. . . . It looked like there was no way we could have stopped them.”

Bowden has been criticized for having Dan Mowrey kick an extra point to tie the score after Rock Preston’s four-yard touchdown run. Bowden’s logic: The Seminoles had come from too far behind to take a chance on losing.