Florida State University: "They're Good Kids!"

You ever get the feeling that some schools only care about athletics? Well, it might put your mind at ease to know that Florida State University is not one of those schools. 

With their backs against the wall and the NCAA Committee on Infractions foaming at the mouth, Florida State president T.K. Wetherell decided it was time to lay down and take it. And boy, did they take it. 

Citing "major violations" and "extremely serious" allegations against the school of more than 40,000 students, the situation sheds some light on some very dark problems with the NCAA's academic and athletic bodies. 

They have been caught cheating. When I say "they" I am referring to some 60 student athletes who were deemed ineligible by the NCAA but competed anyway. This, of course, happened without the coaches' knowledge. 

The most critical of these sports has to be men's football. Not to be outdone, however, it appears that swimmers, golfers, baseball players, basketball players, and even track and field athletes are unable to make the grade. Or, at least not show up to compete when you are not allowed to.

Don't let this fool you, however; The women cheated too. The whole lot of them.

Football coach Bobby Bowden was going to break the great Joe Paterno's record this year as the most wins all-time in men's Division I Football. However, since the NCAA and FSU are still trying to determine just how many games he will get knocked off, he may never be allowed to reach that record. 

Added to the list of penalties is four years probation and a reduction in scholarships offered. This isn't just for football, this is for everyone. Now, this is never stated but I am going to have to assume that one of the largest colleges in America can't win a title, a bowl game, nothing for four years in 10 sports. 

Now, most of you remember that roughly two dozen football players were suspended for the Music City Bowl, which FSU lost 35-28 to Kentucky. The Seminoles also suspended about 10 players for the first three games of the 2008 season. 

What you may not know is that the NCAA and FSU agreed to terms that athletes who had received "improper help" would be suspended for 30 percent of their seasons. Thirty percent of their seasons; how exactly does that work?  Are those redshirts, freshmen, transfers? Either way, 39 admitted receiving improper assistance in an online music course.

Yeah, read it again if you want, an online music course taken by students that go to FSU. Forgive the intentional sarcasm but these kids should not be allowed to graduate and enter the real world like the rest of the hard-working collegiate men and women if they can't even pass an online music course. 

The football team will be limited to 83 total scholarships in 2008-09; 82 in 2009-10; and 84 in 2010-11; the maximum usually allowed by the NCAA is 85. Now the great thing is Florida State were the ones who imposed these penalties on themselves. Now here is the real kicker, the juice of this fruit.

The NCAA is allowed to by the rules to revoke 10 percent of the scholarships, 8.5 for the non-fraction based readers.  Now, when you see a school with 10 different athletic programs and 60 students cheating, you allow their cornerstone breadwinner to take away six scholarships in three years. Even if you could take away 27 for three years I hardly doubt that it would get the point across. 

You see, most of the time you might find that 30-40 students will actually play in a football game, with the other students riding the pine. So let's do some math—hopefully not Division I school math, that could be too complicated. 

You get to sign 85 students every year to a football scholarship, 35 play. That leaves you with 50 students who have scholarships but don't play. They might be redshirted or maybe next year's starters. The reason this isn't much of a math problem is you get another 85 next year. So I ask you again, is six lost scholarships going to make an impact?

Lastly, I would like to bring everyone's attention to the academic progress rate or APR.  This was imposed by the NCAA as a guideline for every Division I program to make sure that their academics keep up with their athletics. Funny, I always thought academics came first. 

If you have some free time, your favorite drink and maybe some background music, I insist that you delve into the wording that could be the most confusing set of rules you may ever lay eyes on. Go on, check it out. When you come back in two days, please continue this article. Reads like stereo instructions doesn't it? 

Anyway, since its inception in February 2005 the rule was you had to maintain a 925 out of 1,000. Simply put, half of the students had to graduate. Yeah, just half. Penalties range from simple to harsh.  By simple I mean you lose scholarships, which if you are with me on this one doesn't mean much.

However, if your school was to post a 900 four consecutive years you lose your membership to Division I athletics—everyone, cheaters and non-cheaters alike. 

Now the amazing thing is last year the FSU football program was 954. Oddly enough however, a graph from the NCAA's own PDF shows that over that four-year span 233 schools posted between 920 and what I can only imagine was 931. The real interesting thing is that the largest jump made miraculously came within the last year of eligibility, before they start to hand out the stiff penalties. 

So there you have it. College kids cheat, our largest schools in the country are passing 50 to 60 percent of student athletes, and the multi-billion dollar monster that is the NCAA is handing out few penalties and even fewer examples of how the education of today and tomorrow youth should be held accounted for.  It's OK though. They're good kids!