NCAA Football

FSU Doggedly Fighting NCAA Over Wins

Posted Jul 01, 2009 2:23PM By Jim Henry (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Florida State

Text SizeAAA
Florida State has returned the NCAA's volley.

FSU administrators released their rebuttal Wednesday morning to the NCAA in the latest step in the school's appeal of sanctions stemming from an academic misconduct case. The university is appealing just one of the original sanctions imposed by the NCAA earlier this year -- the order to vacate wins in as many as 10 sports.

The NCAA has not moved from its position that FSU must vacate victories in multiple sports, a ruling that would cost Seminoles football coach Bobby Bowden 14 victories and essentially end his bid to become college football's all-time winningest coach.

The academic fraud involving FSU student athletes in an online music course took place during the fall semesters of 2006 and 2007 and spring of 2007.

FSU's appeal is another step of a process that will likely go into the fall, according to school officials. In its 21-page appeal, FSU argued that the school must be credited for "institutional cooperation and self-corrective action. (The Committee on Infractions) did not explain -- as it must do -- how those mitigating factors might or might not have influenced its choice of penalties.


"If the Committee in fact weighed those factors, it did so in a black box that denies the University and this Committee a meaningful opportunity to review the appropriateness of its logic and decision. Because the Committee did not even address these essential factors, the vacation-of-wins penalty must be reversed."

The university argued that it worked with the NCAA to come up with a penalty for student-athletes involved in the case so they could have their eligibility restored. The rebuttal also says: "The vacation of wins at this stage -- after the student-athletes waived their opportunity to establish their innocence -- is inequitable."

The rebuttal was signed by William E. Williams of the GrayRobinson law firm.

Bowden, who turns 80 in November, has 382 wins, one fewer than the 82-year-old Joe Paterno of Penn State. Paterno earlier this spring voiced his displeasure with the NCAA possibly vacating Bowden's victories. The ruling could also cost FSU's track program a national championship.

In documents released last month by FSU, while the NCAA Committee of Infractions again commended FSU for its cooperative efforts and corrective actions, the committee "did not believe they were so extraordinary as to warrant relief from the vacation penalty in a case in which there are so many relevant aggravating factors," according to the 23-page report.

The NCAA said that FSU fell short of showing that the order to vacate wins was excessive. The committee pointed to six factors "as relevant to the imposition of a vacation penalty."

--There were a large number of violations committed by three institutional staff members and at least 61 student-athletes in 10 different sports

--The violations were serious and intentional

--Student-athletes competed while academically ineligible.

--There was an uncontested finding of institutional failure to monitor various aspects of the Athletic Academic Support Services (AASS) program.

-- There was widespread academic fraud; and

-- Three institutional staff members in the AASS program engaged in unethical conduct by encouraging and/or participating in the academic fraud. Their involvement was especially egregious because of their positions as individuals charged specifically with maintaining academic integrity within the athletics program.

The bulk of FSU's rebuttal released Wednesday cites precedent from other NCAA cases that FSU officials believe justify their appeal.

Tags: Bobby+Bowden

Related Articles

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)