Florida State Must Vacate Wins
February 8th, 2010 – Written By Scott Mills
The Florida State football team sent Bobby Bowden off with a convincing win over West Virginia in the Gator Bowl back in January. However it appears he will have to vacate wins just a month after his retirement from the institution he spent 34 years with.
The NCAA made the decision to decline the University’s appeal of the sanctions the organization placed. The NCAA upheld a prior ruling which will require Florida State to forfeit 12 wins from the 2006 and 2007 football seasons among many other victories, across several sports. Bowden retired with 389 career victories, which is second all-time to Penn State head coach Joe Paterno. Despite the forfeit of victories, Bowden still remains second in the history books, with 377 wins.
Perhaps the hardest hit athletic team at FSU comes from the men’s track team, which vacates their 2007 outdoor National Championship. The team won the National title in 2006 and 2008 as well, but must forfeit their second in the train of championships.
The story stems from an academic cheating scandal that broke in 2009. The university reported the instances to the NCAA and imposed self sanctions that were accepted by the NCAA. However, the organization did not feel that the punishment fit the crime, and moved forward with harsher penalties that hinted at the possibility of vacating wins that athletic programs had accumulated while players were ineligible.
Over 60 student-athletes spanning 10 sports were involved in the situation with unethical academic practices. This incident leaves a black eye on an athletic program rich with success. Newly appointed Athletic Director Randy Spetman has only been at the University since 2007, and has faced the difficult situation since his arrival.
Florida State must now move forward and impose the penalties. The vacated victories include several tournament wins from softball, baseball, women’s basketball, men’s basketball and swimming and diving.
Among the notable losses:
Softball will lose 32 wins from the 2006-07 season, which includes a pair of win in the ACC tournament.
The men’s basketball team will lose two NIT wins and 22 regular season victories.
The women’s basketball program will forfeit 22 total wins spanning from 2006 to 2008.
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Boo-hoo-hoo. There was always this suspicion that FSU was recruiting physical athletes without regard to college-level academic ability. Except for the occasional exception, they got muscles, even if they included msucles between the ears. IT’S ABOUT TIME THEY PAID A PRICE for all the cheating they have done.
Hello Mate. This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. It is not like Bobby Bowden was doing the cheating or encouraging them to do so. What a joke the NCAA is.