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Swamp or be swamped
is the question

SO, Hawaii will play Florida at "The Swamp" in the season opener in 2008.

Interesting.

Is Hawaii Florida State or is it Middle Tennessee State?

You will recall (or maybe you won't) that Florida State started its run to greatness this way, too. This was back when Bobby Bowden had to beat opponents with strategy and originality and ingenuity rather than just by blinding speed and overwhelming force. This was back before he'd hired half his family and started doing sideline TV interviews while plays were being called and actually run. Before anyone ever thought of making any "Free Shoes U" cracks.

Yes, Florida State -- back before the term had even been invented -- was kind of a mid-major.

It's tough to imagine now. It seems like FSU has been a college football power forever. It seems like the Seminoles have always had 11 Parade All-Americans on the field at once. But no. There were plenty of days when the roster wasn't exactly stacked with future pros.

(Burt Reynolds played there. Lee Corso played there. At the same time. They were college roommates. How would you have liked to sit in on those "study sessions"?)

When Bowden left West Virginia for FSU in the mid-'70s, it was not considered a step up.

Plus, FSU was an independent, back when you could be, so Bowden started scheduling anyone he could, anywhere; he became "King of the Road." The traditional powers, too. FSU played in the biggest of big houses. Bowden busted out his trick plays. The Seminoles won some.

Ten, 12, 15, now almost 30 years later, the players keep coming, he starts wearing fancy sunglasses and you can't spell "preseason Top 5" without F-S-U.

That's probably the plan here.

Of course, he was Bobby Bowden. And that was Florida, where there is so much football talent that -- well, you saw what Florida Atlantic did with the leftovers after the three in-state national powers had taken their pick and every other D-I school in the country had its shot, too.

Fresno State has tried to copy that Bowden blueprint. The results have been mixed at best. I say "mixed" and "at best" because the Bulldogs have snagged a Sports Illustrated cover and some heady ESPN buzz -- but so what? FSU (the WAC one) always seems to have a midseason breakdown and, these last few years, hasn't even made a serious charge at winning its own (decidedly non-BCS) league.

They've had some (sort of) A-list wins, but, when it matters, that kind of schedule seems to have taken its toll, too.

Not everybody can be early-Bowden Florida State.

Which brings us to that other option. There are two reasons you schedule a home nonconference game. Because either a) the opponent is high-profile enough that you get a big boost out of it by winning -- in other words, it's worth the gamble of a loss and a loss to this team wouldn't look so bad anyway; or b) you know it's a win. You get the gate, the fans go home happy and it's worth it to pay the opponent off with a cartoon bag of money.

Everybody schedules this way. Hawaii schedules its home games this way.

So which is this?

Is Hawaii a Florida State on the make or an Arkansas State as the mark?

UH will -- and should -- spin it as the former. You gotta believe.

But let's face it: UH is just not a big enough name that Florida is making this deal based on the prestige of playing Hawaii. This is a season opener for an SEC school, and you college football fans know what that means.

Sure, Hawaii's offense might have been a factor in getting this game -- but so was 69-3. (And that there wasn't any talk yesterday about Florida making a trip here is telling, too.)

The 2008 opener is a long way away. I admire UH's ambition. We'll see.

This kind of thing worked once, for Bowden. Fresno State has shown this kind of strategy can hurt as much as it helps.

Going all the way to Florida to play the Gators in The Swamp is just crazy.

Time will tell if it's so crazy it just might work.