March 6, 2009

NCAA hammers FSU in Tutor-gate ruling

The NCAA has announced its ruling in the FSU Tutor-gate scandal -- and its a big one. Saying that "academic fraud is among the most egregious of NCAA violations", the NCAA put FSU on probation, reduced scholarships, and will force the school to vacate wins in 10 sports.

In addition to FSU's self-imposed penalties - which included suspending all 61 implicated players in ten sports for 25 percent of their seasons - the NCAA has ruled that Florida State must vacate any regular-season or post-season win in any sport for the 2006 and 2007 seasons in which an implicated athlete competed. The ruling means that FSU will likely vacate football victories in both the 2006 and 2007 seasons. It is not immediately clear how many games will have to be vacated.

If FSU does vacate football wins, the NCAA ruling outlines that Bobby Bowden's win total will also be reduced accordingly, creating what could be an insurmountable gap between Bowden's win total and Joe Paterno's all-time wins record of 383.

FSU will also be placed on four-year probation, but will not be barred from television or post-season appearances.

In addition to FSU's self-imposed scholarship reductions (2 in the 2008 season and 3 this season), the NCAA imposed one additional scholarship penalty for the 2010 season - a total of six scholarships lost in football.

The NCAA found that the two main factors that led to the academic scandal where a lack of a structured environment in which the online music exams were administered and loose supervision of the academic support department, particularly in oversight of both the paid and volunteer staff.

For those that don't recall, FSU found and self-reported academic tutor violations to the NCAA in 2007. Andrew Carter of The Orlando Sentinel has some great background on the case, including the complete timeline of the investigation.

In September 2008, the NCAA completed its review of FSU's case, ruling that no additional infractions had occurred beyond those self-reported by Florida State and that the Seminoles did not knowingly allow ineligible athletes to participate; however, the NCAA did not return its penalty findings to the Seminoles until today.

The ACC will review the findings and may elect to add additional penalties. FSU will have 15 days in which to appeal the ruling.

UPDATE

It certinaly didn't take FSU long to respond. The Seminoles will continue their self-imposed penalties and will implement all the NCAA recommendations, except the vacated wins - which will be appealed.

"We believe that the NCAA confirmed that our investigative efforts and our self-imposed penalties were appropriate," said Florida State President T.K. Wetherell. "We already began implementing our self-imposed penalties. And we will begin implementing all but one of the NCAA's additional sanctions."

"We just don't understand the sanction to vacate all wins in athletics contests in which ineligible student-athletes competed because we did not allow anyone who we knew was ineligible to compete. Our position throughout the inquiry was that as soon as we knew of a problem, they didn't play."

...

"Our independent investigation concluded that our coaches did not know about the academic misconduct and never knowingly played any ineligible student-athlete," Spetman said. "The NCAA's report does not dispute that conclusion. Some of our student-athletes engaged in academic misconduct - and we will suffer the consequences but I believe vacating wins is just wrong."

Comments:

NCAA hammers FSU in Tutor-gate ruling
The NCAA has announced its ruling in the FSU Tutor-gate scandal -- and its a big one. Saying that "academic fraud is among the most egregious of NCAA violations", the NCAA put FSU on probation, reduced scholarships, and will force the school to vacate wins in 10 sports. In addition to FSU's self-imposed penalties - which included suspending all 61 implicated players in ten sports for 25 percent of their seasons - the NCAA has ruled that Florida State must vacate any regular-season or post-season win in any sport for the 2006 and 2007 seasons in which an implicated athlete competed. The ruling means that FSU will likely vacate football victories in both the 2006 and 2007 seasons. It is not immediately clear how many games will have to be vacated. If FSU does vacate football wins, the NCAA ruling outlines that Bobby Bowden's win total will also be reduced accordingly, creating what could be an insurmountable gap between Bowden's win total and Joe Paterno's all-time wins record of 383. FSU will also be placed on four-year probation, but will not be barred from television or post-season appearances. In addition to FSU's self-imposed scholarship reductions (2 in the 2008 season and 3 this season), the NCAA imposed one additional scholarship penalty for the 2010 season - a total of six scholarships lost in football. The NCAA found that the two main factors that led to the academic scandal where a lack of a structured environment in which the online music exams were administered and loose supervision of the academic support department, particularly in oversight of both the paid and volunteer staff. For those that don't recall, FSU found and self-reported academic tutor violations to the NCAA in 2007. Andrew Carter of The Orlando Sentinel has some great background on the case, including the complete timeline of the investigation. In September 2008, the NCAA completed its review of FSU's case, ruling that no additional infractions had occurred beyond those self-reported by Florida State and that the Seminoles did not knowingly allow ineligible athletes to participate; however, the NCAA did not return its penalty findings to the Seminoles until today. The ACC will review the findings and may elect to add additional penalties. FSU will have 15 days in which to appeal the ruling.

UPDATE

It certinaly didn't take FSU long to respond. The Seminoles will continue their self-imposed penalties and will implement all the NCAA recommendations, except the vacated wins - which will be appealed.

"We believe that the NCAA confirmed that our investigative efforts and our self-imposed penalties were appropriate," said Florida State President T.K. Wetherell. "We already began implementing our self-imposed penalties. And we will begin implementing all but one of the NCAA's additional sanctions."
"We just don't understand the sanction to vacate all wins in athletics contests in which ineligible student-athletes competed because we did not allow anyone who we knew was ineligible to compete. Our position throughout the inquiry was that as soon as we knew of a problem, they didn't play." ... "Our independent investigation concluded that our coaches did not know about the academic misconduct and never knowingly played any ineligible student-athlete," Spetman said. "The NCAA's report does not dispute that conclusion. Some of our student-athletes engaged in academic misconduct - and we will suffer the consequences but I believe vacating wins is just wrong."