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FSU May Appeal NCAA's Vacate Wins Ruling

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By STEVE ELLIS The Tallahassee Democrat

The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 7, 2009

Updated: 03/07/2009 12:35 am

TALLAHASSEE - Florida State is gearing up for another fight with the NCAA.

The university likely will appeal an NCAA ruling that 10 teams must vacate victories in which ineligible student-athletes involved in an academic-misconduct case had participated in athletic competition before being reinstated. The case involved 61 student-athletes and three former FSU employees, and largely centered on a tutor providing answers to quizzes for an online music course.

Bobby Bowden's chances of ending his career as major college football's all-time winningest coach were dealt a potentially serious blow, and the FSU men's track and field team could be forced to vacate its 2007 national championship because of a sanction that was among seven announced by organization Friday. The 78-year-old Bowden has 382 victories and trails Penn State's Joe Paterno by one.

"We just don't understand the sanction to vacate all wins in athletics contests in which ineligible student-athletes competed because we did not allow anyone who we knew was ineligible to compete," FSU President T.K. Wetherell said in a statement released by the university. "Our position throughout the inquiry was that as soon as we knew of a problem, they didn't play."

Wetherell, who went up against NCAA President Myles Brand in 2005 to protect FSU's use of the Seminole name and imagery, had indicated an appeal will be forthcoming if he is not satisfied after talking to NCAA officials specifically about that sanction in particular.

"We will seriously consider our appeal options after having further discussions with the NCAA," he was quoted as saying in the university statement.

While the issue for FSU is that they did not knowingly play ineligible student-athletes, the NCAA looks at it another way.

"When the academic fraud occurred that would be the trigger in declaring players ineligible," NCAA spokesperson Stacey Osburn said. "It is up to Florida State to identify those games and report to the NCAA."

The committee considered the case to be "extremely serious" and in explaining the decision to vacate wins, the committee stated in its 24-page infraction report:

"The violations were serious and intentional, student-athletes competed while academically ineligible, there was a finding of institutional failure to monitor, there was widespread academic fraud; the academic fraud was perpetrated purposefully by three different individuals in the institution's academic athletic support services, including the former learning specialist."

Although reacting sternly to the case, the committee only slightly adjusted FSU's self-imposed scholarship reductions. FSU had already reduced five scholarships during a two-year period in football and now will take away another for the 2010-11 class. The football program will compete with 83 of a possible 85 scholarships in 2009 and 84 of 85 in 2010.

The men's basketball program will lose one scholarship in either the 2009-10 or 2010-11 season. The women's basketball program will lose two scholarships in either 2009-10 or 2010-11. The university can decide which seasons to take the scholarship reductions in basketball.

The women's swimming program will lose two scholarships for either the 2009-10 or 2010-11 season.

The other sports involved - baseball, softball, men's swimming, men's golf, men's track and field and women's track and field - will compete this season with varying scholarship reductions. Each sport will be free of those restrictions after this season.

FSU was also put on four-year probation, doubling what FSU self-imposed in February 2008. Neither Wetherell nor FSU director of athletics Randy Spetman apparently disagreed with the findings other than vacating wins.

"We believe that the NCAA confirmed that our investigative efforts and our self-imposed penalties were appropriate," Wetherell said. "We already began implementing our self-imposed penalties. And we will begin implementing all but one of the NCAA's additional sanctions."

FSU self-reported to the NCAA in September 2007 the results of an in-house investigation began the previous spring that centered on student-athletes being provided answers to quizzes for an online music course involving a former tutor.

FSU then worked with the NCAA student-athlete reinstatement committee in suspending involved student-athletes 30 percent of participation in athletic competition of their respective seasons. The misconduct took place during the fall semester of 2006 and the 2006 and 2007 spring and summer semesters.

In its release, the committee of infractions pointed the blame for the infractions related to the online music class to two factors.

"First, it said the online exams for the music course were not administered in a structured environment," the committee wrote in its report. "Second, the committee said that inconsistent supervision of the University Athletics Academics Support Services created an environment that allowed the academic support personnel to take action violating NCAA rules and university guidelines."

FSU acknowledged in its response to the NCAA's notice of allegations released in September that it had violated six NCAA bylaws - four relating to extra benefits, one pertaining to unethical conduct and one failure to monitor. The university later appeared before the NCAA committee of infractions Oct. 18.

>>> THE NEWS: Florida State received four years' probation from the NCAA on Friday, will lose scholarships in football and may forfeit games because of a widespread academic cheating scandal involving 10 sports. The Seminoles will have to give up two scholarships this recruiting season and one the following year. Other sports will lose scholarships and have victories threatened, including three NCAA national championships in track and field. The NCAA report says 61 Florida State athletes cheated on an online test for a single music history course in the fall of 2006 and the spring and summer semesters of 2007.

>>> WHAT IT MEANS FOR BOWDEN: The NCAA said the school must vacate all wins in contests in which athletes involved in the cheating participated. That could involve up to 14 football victories for Coach Bobby Bowden, whose 382 wins are one behind Penn State's Joe Paterno for the most all-time among major college coaches.

>>> WHAT'S NEXT: The university said it would challenge any attempt to strip the school of any victories or championships.

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