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NCAA hits Florida State with probation

March 06, 2009
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The NCAA has put Florida State University on four years probation for major violations including academic fraud involving 61 student-athletes across 10 sports.

In addition to probation, the Atlantic Coast Conference school was hit with reduced scholarships and several records were vacated, the NCAA said in a news release. FSU issued a statement saying school officials were pleased that the NCAA Committee on Infractions accepted the findings of an FSU investigation and acknowledged that nearly all of the penalties self-imposed by the university were appropriate.

However, because it never knowingly played student-athletes who were ineligible and followed eligibility guidelines with which the NCAA agreed, the university will seek clarification of a specific penalty requiring it to vacate wins and will consider its appellate opportunities under NCAA procedures, the statement said.

FSU was told that victories would be vacated in cases in which ineligible student-athletes competed in football, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's track, baseball, softball and men's golf during the 2006 and 2007 academic years. The school has 90 days to identify ineligible student-athletes and which victories would have to be vacated.

The infractions involved a former FSU learning specialist, academic adviser and tutor who gave improper assistance to student-athletes that the NCAA said resulted in academic fraud.

The Committee on Infractions called the case extremely serious because of the number of student-athletes involved and because the committee regards academic fraud as one of the most egregious violations of NCAA rules.

Much of the fraud revolved around a music course whose academic integrity was compromised in the fall semester of 2006 and again in the 2007 spring and summer semesters, the NCAA said.

The statement said the former learning specialist involved in the infractions impermissibly typed portions of papers for at least three student-athletes and instructed a student-athlete to complete an online academic quiz for another student-athlete.

UPI

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