Florida State Puts All Sports Teams On Probation

[Mean Green 93-98]

Florida State puts all sports teams on probation

Feb. 14, 2008

CBSSports.com wire reports

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida State's sports teams will be on self-imposed probation for two years and some will lose scholarships because of an academic cheating scandal, the university said in a report released Thursday.

About 60 student-athletes also have or will suffer some loss of eligibility. Two staffers, a tutor and learning specialist, already had been fired. No additional dismissals were listed in the investigatory report.

The cheating occurred mainly through online testing for a single course in the fall of 2006 and the spring and summer semesters last year.

Florida State officials conducted the investigation with assistance from the NCAA, Atlantic Coast Conference and a consulting firm. The report has been sent to the NCAA, which can still conduct its own investigation and impose additional penalties.

Among the corrective actions listed in the report is a requirement for all athletics staff members to attend a four-hour training program titled "Decision-Making in the NCAA Compliance Environment."

"We believe that our investigation has been thorough and exhaustive," said Florida State provost Larry Abele, who chaired the investigating committee. "This university and its Athletics Department have accepted responsibility, made changes in the process and systems and imposed penalties as warranted."

A school spokesman was not immediately able to explain how the probation, effective Wednesday, would affect the teams.

The NCAA's Student-Athlete Reinstatement staff, though, has agreed to a 30 percent across-the-board loss of eligibility for students who came forward and admitted they received improper help with the test.

Some of the penalties already have gone into effect. About two dozen of the football team's top players were suspended for the Music City Bowl on Dec. 31 in Nashville, Tenn., where the Seminoles lost to Kentucky. Many of those players will remain suspended for the first three games of the 2008 season.

The school also is making changes at five senior staff levels in the athletic department, though the report did not include details on the changes.

Former athletic director Dave Hart Jr. departed late last year with a year still left on his contract, but he denied it had anything to do with the cheating scandal. Last week, the school hired former Utah State athletic director Randy Spetman.

AP NEWS

The Associated Press News Service

[FirefightnRick]

Scoot over OU and make room in the shamefull, dirty program corner.

Rick

[KRAM1]

I still wonder what the NCAA will do about all this...they seem to have been a bit quiet...no, the death penalty will not even be considered, but this is flat out wrong and the cheating needs to stop. Perhaps this indicates that "big time" college athletics needs to take a breath and think more about "student athletes" and a little less about folks who can't pass even basic courses without "help"...you know, there is some pretty darn good foootball, BB, Soccer,Lacrosse, Baseball, etc.,etc. being played at places like Navy, Duke, Rice, Notre Dame, Army, Yale, Brown, etc., etc., etc. You do not have to recruit "bandits", lawbreakers, poor students and just down right "bad cahracters" to have agood student athletic program. Maybe if we didn't fire coaches for every losing season, lowered a few salaries in the coaching ranks and had less pressure on the money side, we could get back to real student centered sports on the college level. Those DIII football playoff games on TV every year are pretty darn entertaining and the football played is quality stuff.

But, I dream..............

[forevereagle]

Scoot over OU and make room in the shamefull, dirty program corner.

Rick

Didn't FSU and Miami have to make room for OU? I wasn't aware that FSU had been allowed out of the corner.

[FirefightnRick]

Didn't FSU and Miami have to make room for OU? I wasn't aware that FSU had been allowed out of the corner.

As I recall, OU has served probation for violations 7 times now. I dont know where that ranks with Miami or FSU or Alabama, but that's gotta be up there pretty high. Yet we saw last week kids from Texas still willing to play for them?

Rick