TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Is Bowden Getting A Bum Rap In FSU Scandal?

Tribune file photo by SCOTT ISKOWITZ

Coach Bobby Bowden is most affected by the proposed NCAA sanctions that may strip the Seminoles of 14 victories.

ADVERTISEMENT

By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 11, 2009

Updated: 03/11/2009 07:00 am

I'm not sure how the academic scandal at Florida State University became the sole property and responsibility of Bobby Bowden, but that's exactly what seems to have happened.

Admittedly, he is most affected by the proposed NCAA sanctions that may strip the Seminoles of 14 victories, basically making it impossible for Bowden to catch Penn State's Joe Paterno on the list of winningest college football coach.

For the life of me, though, I can't make the leap from FSU's institutional problem to the conclusion many have reached that Bowden should retire.

Sorry to be weighing in on this a few days late, by the way, but I was out of pocket when the story broke last weekend. Something tells me this story will be going on for a while, though. And it was symptomatic of a much more significant problem than Bowden's win total.

The NCAA knew exactly what it was doing by demanding FSU teams "vacate" victories in multiple sports, including football, for using players that should have been declared academically ineligible. Costing Bowden any chance to beat Paterno would be much more than a wrist slap to the Seminoles but less than a lengthy probation.

Well, I don't necessarily have a problem with that.

The rules on using ineligible players are strict for a reason, even if (as FSU claims) the coaches didn't know they were ineligible. The NCAA has long led the civilized world in phoniness, but it has to keep some kind of standard in academics or the game is up.

But if Bowden didn't knowingly use ineligible players, and there is no indication he did, then how did a problem that infiltrated 10 sports over the entire athletic department become basically a referendum on Bowden's coaching future?

Mandate On Bowden

To me, this whole thing spills over into the dreaded area of "institutional control" – or lack thereof. That's a university problem, and FSU reacted accordingly.

Does anyone think it coincidental that Dave Hart was forced out as athletic director right around the time NCAA snoops started combing through dirty laundry in Tallahassee? This problem went well beyond football.

The internal steps FSU undertook when the implications of this mess became clear probably saved the Seminoles stiffer penalties.

All well and good.

Somehow, though, Bowden has become the face of this mess, and I don't get it.

Ron Cook, columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, had this to say in his column:

"The justice isn't that the Florida State football program, long considered by many to be dirty, is taking a big fall because of a widespread academic-cheating scandal. The real justice is that the NCAA punishment should cost Bobby Bowden any chance of finishing ahead of Penn State's Joe Paterno in the race to be major college football's all-time winningest coach. It would be a crying shame if Bowden ended up with that record. It would be one of the most fraudulent records in sports, right up there with Barry Bonds' home run record. Paterno's 383 career wins are legitimate, Bowden's 382 are not."

We're talking about the same Joe Paterno, right?

For all the good he has done, Paterno's players have had numerous brushes with the law in recent seasons, along with academic problems. That hardly makes Penn State unique – check under the rocks at just about any major football-playing school, and you'll find problems.

Bowden certainly has had moments of high embarrassment over the years as well (see: Shoes University, Free), and you probably could have had better ammunition then for "Bobby Must Go" than you would now.

A Pointless Race

As much as this becomes a referendum on Bowden and Paterno, the fight to stay atop the victory list became pointless to me a couple of years ago. Will Bowden's place in history be any smaller because Joe Paterno won a few more games? Will FSU fans revere him any less?

He is an icon in the place that matters most, Tallahassee, and he remains that way forever. Just like Paterno will in Happy Valley.

To me, both of them coach as long as they want to, and their universities agree that they should. In Bowden's case, nothing about FSU's current problem means a dadgum thing about his coaching future.

To suggest otherwise is taking way too large a leap for my taste.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT