Florida State Thinks Bobby Bowden is More Important Than Cheating.
by Colin R. on Jun.18, 2009, under NCAA Football
Bobby Bowden. Courtesy of Flickr.com/ryanregister (Used under Creative Commons License)
A public records lawsuit allowed Florida State to release a June 2nd letter in which the NCAA announced its intentions to uphold sanctions against FSU, which include the school forfeiting wins.
This all stems from an incident back in 2006-2007 where over 60 FSU athletes cheated on…get ready for it…an online test in a music history course. Good choice, guys.
Now, the big fuss about this really comes because the school’s football team will have to forfeit as many as 14 wins, which will likely cost Bobby Bowden a shot at the all-time wins records for a college coach. Let’s face it, Bowden was NEVER going to catch Joe Paterno. Just take a look at the current state of the two school’s programs – Florida State has gone 16-10 and Penn State has gone 20-6 over the last two seasons. Beside that, Paterno has a one game lead over Bowden even IF all of FSU’s wins stand.
However, Florida State refuses to accept the penalties, presumably just because they are concerned about Bowden’s legacy. Can you think of any other reason why FSU cares so much about a handful of wins spattered across mostly non-elite programs? There isn’t one. These kids are supposed to be STUDENT athletes. If they cheated as students, the athletic accomplishments simply shouldn’t stand. Yet somehow both Bowden and University President T.K. Wetherell both insist on making the situation about the Bowden/JoePa race. According to the AP Wetherell commented:
“There was no coach involved in this,” Wetherell said. “The one group of people that were not involved in this thing were the coaches. They’re the one group that’s being penalized.”
And, in a comment to WBRC-TV in Birmingham, Bowden added:
”Joe would not want to win this thing the way they (the NCAA) are doing this.”
So the lesson is, student athletes cheating in collegiate sports is hardly as important some absurd race to see which coach can compile the most wins before they simply HAVE to retire. Bravo, Florida State. Way to prove that your real mission is about academics, and not just about winning some football games.
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NCAA Gets Two In A Row - GO FOR 2
June 30th, 2009 on 3:48 pm[...] what the ‘other one’ of the two in a row the NCAA got right was? See my earlier article on why Florida State and Bobby Bowden will have to finally accept that in COLLEGE, academics [...]
July 1st, 2009 on 2:22 pm
Yo, first of all, great blog. I’ve started checking it daily.
Second, I just wanted to comment on this article and the one about the Texas guy who drove through a building. Specifically, this statement: “These kids are supposed to be STUDENT athletes.” I hate the term “student athlete” and I think we should just stop using it altogether. I don’t care if college athletes go to class. I don’t care if they get arrested. All I care about is that they are allowed to play, win, and entertain me. I’m going to end up paying $100,000 in to get a degree from USC and part of what I’m paying for are winning football and basketball teams. Put a quality product on the field/court or give me my money back. These kids are given the OPPORTUNITY to get a free college education. I’m not going to lose any sleep over them pissing it away as long as my future alma mater is winning games. Do you really think I care if the entire basketball team doesn’t graduate? That’s like 12 kids out of 30,000. Who cares? If they make the Final Four, that’s 28,988 people that got to share in an awesome college experience that they PAID money for. I want to watch my school make a tournament run. I paid money for it. Stop bothering me with details like class attendance, DUIs, and cheating on music tests.
July 1st, 2009 on 2:56 pm
Hey, thanks for reading and thanks for leaving a comment, I’m glad I can at least put up some entertaining stuff.
First off, I really do agree with you on a lot of the ‘Student Athlete’ issues. Everyone knows these kids are there to win games and entertain fans. And you’re right, not only does everyone at the school (as well as others) benefit from the experience of something like a Final Four run, or a FBS Championship, but there are other benefits. The schools that advance deep into March Madness receive huge cuts from the NCAA, around $500,000 last time I checked. Along with merchandise sales, ticket sales, and the money that boosters bring in from alumni… these sports teams create scholarships, grants, new buildings, and better faculty.
My issue is with the universities (and the NCAA). The schools refuse to acknowledge big-time college athletics for what it is, a business. You get things like Florida State AD Randy Spetman spewing out lies such as
“Our coaches and staff spend a lot of time trying to evaluate the character of our recruits before offering them a scholarship . . .”
That’s not true at all, your coaches look at game tape, measurables, high school coach reccomendations, and Rivals rankings. You want to win, and that HAS to be the bottom line. I just wish universities would either actually enforce all this nonsense they talk, or drop the act and call it like it is. Like you said, I doubt the majority of the fans are going to care.