Bowden Hits It Big

Florida State signed 66-year-old Bobby Bowden to a five-year contract that will pay the patriarch of college football’s most prominent coaching family almost $1 million annually.

The agreement, which will keep Bowden at Florida State through at least the 2000 season, will pay him $975,000, including $150,000 of state money.

With a bowl game in the balance, Alabama officials appealed to an NCAA panel to lift its postseason ban on the No. 17 Crimson Tide before final bowl matchups are made next week.