March 06, 2009
NCAA report: FSU will vacate wins, perhaps in football
Florida State faces vacating wins in multiple sports, including football, the NCAA has ruled in the case involving a massive academic misconduct scandal that has rocked the entire athletic department, the St. Petersburg Times has learned.

In a report set to be released this afternoon, the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions said that the school must vacate all wins in which 61 student-athletes in 10 sports - football, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's track and field, baseball, softball and men's golf - competed while ineligible during 2006 and 2007. Individual records of the student-athletes also will be vacated. That includes regular season, postseason and any NCAA championship competition.

It's unclear at this time how each sport will be affected by the sanction, but FSU football won seven games each in 2006 and 2007 and any vacated win would move legendary coach Bobby Bowden further behind Penn State's Joe Paterno as the Division I-A all-time leader. Paterno has 383 wins and Bowden ended last season with 382.

Also possibly in jeopardy is the 2007 men's outdoor track and field national title, the second of three straight, and NCAA Tournament appearances by the women's basketball team and softball team.

FSU officials had said the school would cut scholarships in the 10 sports, five in football over two years and the NCAA has added another one to be cut in 2010-11.

In men's basketball, which the school had said would lose one scholarship (the maximum is 13), it must limit itself to 12 in either 2009-10 or 2010-11. Women's basketball (15 maximum scholarships) will be limited to 13 scholarships in 2008-09 and again in either 2009-10 or 2010-11. FSU had imposed one lost scholarship.

"Had no vacation penalty been imposed, the scholarship limitations would have been more stringent,'' the report said.

The school also will be on four years probation (through March 5, 2013) and receive a public reprimand. It has 15 days in which it can appeal. FSU also faces a review from the ACC and the league could add penalties, although that hasn't been done.

The scandal involved three former employees in Athletics Academic Support Services -- Brenda Monk, a learning specialist, Hillard Goldsmith III, an academic adviser, and an unnamed student tutor -- and the 61 student-athletes.

Most of the student-athletes were said to have received answers to online tests in one online music course. The largest number took the class during the spring of the 2006-07 school year. According to documents, 25 football players were involved and, as a result, the Seminoles were incredibly under-manned at the Music City Bowl against Kentucky in 2007.

Neither FSU's nor the NCAA's investigation found any evidence that coaches were involved, something that differentiated this case with others involving academic fraud.

The NCAA charged that FSU failed to monitor certain aspects of its Athletics Academic Support Services office and didn't take sufficient steps to ensure that there were no improprieties, steps that included failing to review a report that indicated student-athletes in the music course did better than other students.

FSU, in its response to the Notice of Allegations, acknowledged the violations but tried to temper any additional penalties by offering context to how the misconduct occurred, including the confusion over a course that had at one time allowed open-book testing and quizzes that were unchanged for years, as well as measures to prevent another such scandal.

The school also pointed out that it had involved the NCAA enforcement staff early on and that it "scrupulously followed the NCAA's recommended path of resolution concerning student-athlete eligibility.'' School officials then appeared before the Committee on Infractions on Oct. 18 in Indianapolis and have been awaiting word ever since.

Posted by Brian Landman at 12:06:43 PM on March 6, 2009 in Football | Permalink | Comments (11)