Why Florida State Sanctions Are the Right Move By the NCAA

I've heard a lot of people ask this question lately: Why does the NCAA pretend to care anything about academics?

The NCAA hit Florida State last week with what's most likely to be a scholarship loss of about six over three years, but its most controversial and hard-hitting sanction could be the vacating of wins for Florida State. This is the dagger that most Seminole fans don't want to see because it would basically put Bobby Bowden out of the running for all-time winningest coach in Football Bowl Subdivision history.

So if the NCAA takes away wins from Bowden, is it the right thing to do? Should the NCAA get involved in taking away victories that already happened and would directly affect a college football record?

I say yes.

Bottom line is, if you cheat, you cheat. I don't personally hold Bobby Bowden responsible for the academic scandal that involved almost 30 Florida State football players; a coach can't possibly know everything that goes on at his school. But that doesn't matter, because when you are the head coach and the leader of your program, you will be held responsible whether you like it or not.

No, all the teams that Florida State has played over the last two years don't get to add a win to their total. UCLA and Wisconsin don't get bowl trophies awarded to them even though they lost the games. But winning games with players that cheated to stay eligible is directly related to the NCAA and its responsibility to make sure that competition on the field is being done fairly.

Now I'm no NCAA apologist. I think they are an organization with no checks and balances and they make up rulings as they go, but I can't fault them for this one. It's not like Florida State had one or two players involved, and that really wouldn't affect the outcome of the game. They had almost 30 percent of their team involved in this scandal.

That's way too many players to ignore. How many of them would have been ineligible without those grades they received through cheating?

So while Florida State fans and many college football fans seem to think the NCAA should not vacate these wins for historical purposes, I say they are wrong. It would be worse if the NCAA allowed them to play with that many players that cheated their way through school, directly affecting Florida State's performance on the field, and acted like that's OK and let those wins stand.

Think that's fair to Joe Paterno? A guy who has done it the right way his whole career, and now he could be the second all-time winningest coach to a guy that had a widespread academic scandal over a two-year period that allowed players to play who maybe should have never been on the field?

So while the NCAA gets it wrong as much as they get it right these days, I believe the idea of vacating the wins is the right one. Ultimately taking away more scholarships would have done more long-term damage to the program, but then how does that affect Bobby Bowden?

Bowden won't be coaching that much longer, so hitting the program hard for years to come hurts the school more than the coach, when the coach is the one who is ultimately responsible and didn't have proper oversight of his players and their academics.

When it's all said and done, it's possible that the NCAA could pull back the vacating wins sanction and may just hit the Seminoles with some scholarships and probation, but I think the loss of wins would send the right message and would be the proper punishment.

Two coaches are going for history at the end of their careers. One is doing things above board and the right way, while the other is not even acting like he cares about the academic oversight that is going on with his players.

So if you think the NCAA is wrong for possibly having an effect on history by taking away wins from Bowden, how about affecting history by doing nothing and allowing a coach to get away with cheating and credit his résumé with wins that came from ineligible players?

When you cheat, you cheat, no matter who you are. Not even Bobby Bowden should be above that.