OT: FSU Punished by NCAA

Pretty big news - this may bring FSU down a few notches.

The N.C.A.A. has ruled that Florida State was guilty of major violations in a widespread academic fraud case uncovered in 2007. It announced Friday that it would strip scholarships from 10 teams and force them to vacate all of the victories in 2006 and 2007 in which the implicated athletes participated. In addition, the college was placed on probation for four years.

If you remember a few years back, FSU suspended 23 players for a bowl game after uncovering academic fraud. The NCAA did their own investigation, and they realized it's bigger than FSU admitted.

61 players were involved apparently; they had papers written and tests taken for them. FSU will have to forfeit every game in which the 61 players were involved, meaning 14 losses forfeited by Bobby Bowden - looks like he'll lose the battle with JoPa.

On a more important note, both the basketball and football teams will have to forfeit a scholarship the next two years. I haven't found what the exact sanctions are in terms of probation, but this is a slap on the wrist, if that. It was an organized cheating ring, and they lose one scholarship? That might as well be nothing at all. Especially because they called it "extremely serious", I was expecting a bit more.