Scandal at Florida State
The NCAA ruled Friday that 10 Florida State sports will have scholarship reductions and may see up to two seasons’ worth of wins wiped out because of an academic cheating scandal. The report by the NCAA Rules Committee stated that 61 athletes were guilty of academic violations, which included cheating on an online test and having faculty provide answers to exams or write papers for them.
The ten teams implicated in the scandal are football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s and women’s track and field, softball and men’s golf. The NCAA will review exactly how many games will be forfeited based on which academically ineligible athletes competed in which games. It could mean up to 14 wins erased for football coach Bobby Bowden, who with 382 career victories, currently sits one win behind Penn State coach Joe Paterno on the all-time list. The NCAA has put the athletic department on probation for the next four years.
Men’s Basketball
As the ACC Tournament approaches, three teams sit firmly on the bubble of an at-large NCAA Tournament bid: Maryland, Virginia Tech and Miami. All three teams sit at 7-9 after dropping games late in the season to teams at the bottom of the conference; Maryland and Virginia Tech to 11th-place Virginia, and Miami to Georgia Tech. Each team likely needs two wins to get a shot at a bid.
North Carolina secured the top seed in the ACC Tournament after beating Duke Sunday, while Wake Forest earned the No. 2 seed with a win against Clemson.
Women’s Basketball
The ACC women’s basketball scene is more clear-cut; Maryland, Florida State, Duke, North Carolina, Georgia Tech and Virginia are all virtual locks to receive bids. The Terrapins have a good shot at their second consecutive No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, as they sit at No. 4 in the nation after winning the ACC Tournament during the weekend.
Only Boston College, No. 43 in the RPI, sits on the bubble. The Eagles are 20-11 overall and 7-7 in the ACC. They have just two wins against teams in the top-50 in the RPI — against Texas Christian University Nov. 27 and against Georgia Tech Jan. 8 — but also have no losses to teams outside the top 75.
The women’s NCAA Tournament bracket will be announced Monday.
Baseball
As if the cheating scandal at Florida State was not enough, one of the program’s powerhouse teams has gotten off to one of the worst starts in school history. In a stunning upset, Boston College — picked for fifth in the Atlantic Division in the preseason ACC coaches poll — took two of three games from then-No. 6 Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla. The two losses marked the Seminoles’ first ACC opening series loss in school history, which spans 18 seasons.
The Seminoles have lost five of their last six games and have fallen out of the national polls. The team dropped three consecutive games to Auburn, Jacksonville and North Florida prior to the series with the Eagles.
—compiled by Paul Montana
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