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FSU Appeals Wins Part Of Penalty

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By STEVE ELLIS

The Tallahassee Democrat

Published: March 18, 2009

TALLAHASSEE - A feisty and confident T.K. Wetherell promised a vigorous appeal of an NCAA sanction requiring Florida State to vacate wins because of academic misconduct.

Wetherell confirmed FSU's appeal during a Tuesday morning news conference. He pointed to what he sees as the wrongful punishment of FSU coaches as well as the student-athletes not involved in the case that included 61 athletes and three former FSU employees.

"It just isn't right," Wetherell said.

The school has 30 days to appeal, and that appeal to the NCAA Infractions Appeals Committee will be led by former administrative law judge Bill Williams of Tallahassee. If that committee rules against FSU, the school will have 90 days to identify those wins in 10 sports over the 2006 fall, 2007 spring and 2007 fall seasons it must vacate. The school will not appeal other sanctions that include a four-year probation and a modest adjustment of scholarship deductions.

"The coaches had no involvement in this process," Wetherell said. "If you look at the organizational charts that were in place there were no lines, dotted or direct, between the coaches and the academic side. That is by design.

"To suggest that they then be penalized is simply wrong and unfair."

No coach would be more greatly affected by the vacating of wins than Bobby Bowden, who is one victory behind Penn State's Joe Paterno as the winningest coach in major college football. He could lose up to 14 wins, although Wetherell stressed that FSU does not know how many losses would be affected. He repeated that he does not believe FSU played ineligible student-athletes.

"It's just not for Bobby Bowden," Wetherell said. "You have to understand that. It's about a bigger issue."

One bigger issue will be addressed in a letter from Wetherell to NCAA President Myles Brand asking that the NCAA put together a "blue ribbon committee" to address a policy or criteria for vacating wins instead of it being decided by one committee.

The university president also pointed to what he called a partnership with the NCAA during its investigation and the disciplinary process in which student-athletes were suspended 30 percent of athletic competitions in a single season.

"We had a partner ... and that partner was the NCAA itself," Wetherell said.

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