FSU basketball team is mired in middle of the ACC pack, but it sure beats the bottom
The FSU men’s basketball team continued their 1 step backward, 1 step forward pace in the ACC standings by splitting games against Maryland and Miami last week. The downside this time was that both games were at home, thereby increasing the pressure to pick up another road win down the line.
As of today, FSU has home losses against Maryland and North Carolina State, evened out with road wins against Georgia Tech and Boston College. The conventional thought in Tallahassee is that a 9-7 regular season conference record would be enough to feel good about our NCAA tournament chances. 8-8 might be enough, but FSU’s non-conference schedule was not overly challenging . . . and there are no signature non-conference wins on the tournament resume. So, 9 conference wins is the target.
FSU’s current ACC record is 5-4, with 7 games remaining. That means, FSU will need to find 4 wins among: Clemson (away), Boston College (home), Virginia (away), North Carolina (away), Clemson (home), Wake Forest (home), and Miami (away).
NCAA rules unfairly, denies reasonable appeal by FSU. With no options left, the University will accept it and move on.
On Super Bowl Sunday, FSU released the list of vacated wins as a result of the NCAA penalties, thus ending the saga that has dragged on so long that it hardly seems conceivable that it involves technology as modern as an online test. Nearly all Florida State fans disagree with the NCAA’s ruling, but most were ready to accept the penalty so that the programs affected can move on.
The football team will forfeit 12 victories (five from 2006, seven from 2007), and those will also be deducted from Bobby Bowden’s “official” win total. The men’s track team will be stripped of their 2007 national championship. The women’s basketball team will lose 16 wins from the 2006-07 season, including 2 NCAA tournament wins. In total, 10 sports were punished by this decision.
All of these forfeited games and championship are events that took place with at least one of the 61 affected student-athletes competing while ineligible. The athletes were deemed ineligible for accepting assistance on an online exam . . . the famed academic misconduct scandal.
In my opinion, had the coach of any of the 10 sports known that a player had cheated and thus was ineligible, they would have certainly not played them in a game. The player is deemed ineligible at the moment that they are proven to be guilty . . . or at least suspected of guilt. How could anyone be deemed ineligible prior to being suspected of guilt?
The timeline of events in the FSU academic misconduct case:
1. Athletes cheated on exam.
2. One (or more) athlete(s) blew the whistle.
3. An investigation was launched by FSU and it was determined that many athletes in various sports were involved and they were led by corrupt tutors, who were fired immediately.
4. FSU turned themselves in to the NCAA.
5. FSU, under the advisement of the NCAA, self-imposed penalties . . . including probation and scholarship reductions, among others.
6. One penalty agreed to by both FSU and the NCAA was that involved athletes were to be suspended from competition. For football players, this suspension was 4 games (including the Music City Bowl, as well as a loss against Wake Forest in 2007 that arguably cost FSU an ACC Championship Game berth). Basketball players were suspended for 9 games. Baseball players for more.
The NCAA, in their absurd follow-up ruling several months ago (unsuccessfully appealed by FSU) went back in time . . . between steps 1 and 2 . . . and imposed the additional penalties, essentially altering history. At least on their own books.
Certainly, cheating cannot be accepted and there was just cause for punishment . . . no doubt. But, the NCAA essentially levied jail time for a parking ticket in this case. How many collegiate athletes have committed far worse crimes (including actual crimes) yet have received relatively minor punishment . . . such as suspension for a game (usually a cupcake), or maybe they sit out the first half? It happens every year across the country at every level. It has happened here. Has the NCAA ever gone back in time and vacated wins between the point that a player commits a crime and the point that they were proven guilty?
The FSU athletes involved . . . some of whom testified that they did not know the procedure for completing an (open book) online exam and thus were only doing as instructed by the tutor . . . were punished far more harshly than fair.
Furthermore, it is a fact that the vast majority of FSU athletes during this time period had no involvement whatsoever in the cheating scandal. But, they too are being punished . . . just as harshly as the guilty . . . by having their wins taken away. The track team had one athlete involved (who maintained a 3.0 GPA at FSU according to the coach, Bob Braman). But, the national championship was stripped from all innocent athletes and coaches as if they too were guilty.
Is the lesson here that Universities should never perform step #4? Based on the severity of the punishment in this case, there can be no other conclusion. How could FSU have been punished any worse had it not self-reported? This is clearly not a good message that the NCAA is sending.
As for me and my non-NCAA-approved Raycom opinion blog, I will not vacate any wins earned by FSU athletes during this time, and I am seriously considering changing the results against Kentucky (Music City Bowl) and Wake Forest from losses to wins. Yes, I have that kind of power here on my opinion blog.
Seriously though, FSU still has back-to-back-to-back track national champions if you ask me or anyone else who is reasonable. And if you want to know who won the FSU-Colorado game on September 15, 2007 in Boulder, I can tell you because I was there and I took this picture:
Does this look like an FSU loss?
Tags: Bob Braman, Bobby Bowden, Florida State football, NCAA, potw
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