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FSU President To NCAA: 'Our Case Is Compelling'

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FSU President T.K. Wetherell says school coaches had "no involvement" in the academic cheating by 61 athletes in 10 sports.

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The Associated Press

Published: March 17, 2009

Updated: 03/17/2009 02:12 pm

TALLAHASSEE - Florida State University's president announced the school has appealed the NCAA's punishment of stripping victories from teams whose players participated in an academic cheating scandal.

President T.K. Weatherell sent a letter to NCAA president Myles Brand to advise him of the appeal Tuesday and called the forfeitures "excessive and inappropriate." The school has accepted a four-year probation and loss of scholarships in the 10 sports affected.

Wetherell also said the university has hired a former administrative law judge, Bill Williams, to represent Florida State in its appeal.

"The penalty requiring the university to vacate wins is excessive and inappropriate," said Wetherell. "Our case is compelling; it is so compelling you simply can't go in any other direction."

A former Seminoles football player, Wetherell said it's unfair to more than 500 athletes and 52 coaches who were not involved in the cheating.

The forfeits would take 14 wins away from the football program. Coach Bobby Bowden has 382 career wins, one behind the all-time leader in major college football, Joe Paterno of Penn State.

"The coaches had no involvement," Wetherell said. "To hold them responsible in this case is simply wrong."

Bowden has not commented on the NCAA sanctions, which were announced March 6, and was not immediately available after Wetherell's news conference.

The cheating involved 61 athletes and occurred mainly through online testing for a single music history course in the fall of 2006 and the spring and summer semesters of 2007. It included university staff members helping students on the test and in one case asking one athlete to take it for another.

Florida State's football team lost to Kentucky in the 2007 Music City Bowl without two dozen players, including several starters, who had taken the class. Many of the same athletes were held out of the first three games last fall as well as part of their punishment.

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