A couple times since last Christmas, we've updated the "ticking time bomb" that is Florida State's coaching arrangement, which requires FSU to promote coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher to Bobby Bowden's chair by Jan. 1, 2011, or pay Fisher $5 million for his time in the queue. Bowden's current contract is good through next January, at which point he'll have to be either gently nudged out or sign on for one more year through 2010. At which point he'll have to be nudged out or ...

Because Bowden has given no indication of his plans, these are all speculative scenarios, and have usually involved Bowden either voluntarily stepping aside, being gently nudged into retirement with a quiet fight or being flatly canned in a public row after the 2010 season. Few have considered that FSU might keep Bowden and let Fisher walk with the $5 mil, especially given the financial issues bearing down on the athletic department and the university at large. But then, nobody's asked Randy Spetman about it since Bowden's latest extension, until the Orlando Sentinel sat down with FSU's athletic director today:

Orlando Sentinel: FSU would owe Jimbo Fisher $5 million if he’s not head coach by January 2011, but what if Bobby Bowden isn’t ready to leave by then?
Randy Spetman: Then [if] we decide he isn’t ready to go, we’re going to have to pay Jimbo Fisher $5 million.

OS: Is it that simple?
RS: If we decide that we’re happy with where Coach Bowden’s going and moving our program forward and is successful, we’d have to pay $5 million.

OS: You seem kind of matter of fact about this.
RS: That’s what is written. That’s the way it is.

Spetman openly speculates in the Q&A about the prospects of FSU winning the national championship this year, and what that would mean for Bowden's future if he wanted to stay on longer than scheduled, (what, you're going to fire a legend after he brings home a national championship?), a nice fantasy: Florida State will not be winning a national championship with starting quarterback Christian Ponder (the 'Noles won't be favored to win the ACC, if they're even favored in the Atlantic Division), and even if it did, Bowden's presumed figurehead status probably guarantees Fisher would get most of the credit, anyway. It's still too early to ask, really, but -- since the Sentinel went ahead and asked -- FSU wouldn't really let its long-term plan, an attractive option it's already paid for and brought into the fold, walk for another year or two of Bowden's folksy fundraising prowess, would it? This is just what you say when the decision is at an appropriate distance, right? That must be it. Seriously.