FSU to Face Michigan in Orange Bowl

For the fifth straight year, Florida State will be playing in a major bowl game. As the highest ranked ACC team in the College Football Playoff Rankings outside of the top 4, the Seminoles landed a spot in the New Year’s Six.

The 11th-ranked Seminoles will face No. 6 Michigan in the Capital One Orange Bowl on Dec. 30 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. It will be the first meeting between the schools since 1991 when FSU won 51-31 in Ann Arbor. The first ever meeting between the schools took place in 1986 in Ann Arbor with the Wolverines winning 20-18.

For a while, it appeared as though Michigan would be one of the four teams to qualify for the College Football Playoff, but dropped two of its three games to conclude the regular season. The Wolverines are 10-2 for the season and in a major bowl game for the first time since beating Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl following the 2011 season.

Florida State is 9-3 after winning its final four regular season games. The Seminoles last played in the Orange Bowl at the end of the 2012 season, beating Northern Illinois, 31-10. FSU is 0-2 in New Year’s Six bowls since the format switched from the BCS in 2014. The Seminoles fell to Houston in last season’s Peach Bowl, 38-24.

Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson