FLORIDA FOOTBALL: FOOD FOR A MAN'S SOUL
Seminoles’ Tribal Council to Try Self-Discipline
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This just in: FSU has responded to its academic cheating scandal by trying to police itself. Measures include reducing scholarships in all sports, firing guilty staffers, and requiring all AD administrators and non-administrators to attend a four-hour class in “responsible decision-making” There is even talk of a number of guilty students suffering a loss or reduction in their eligibility.
Don’t get me wrong, my inner Gator gets a demented pleasure out of seeing Free Shoes U. suffer for its crimes, but I’m concerned that what the school is doing vacillates between noble and disturbing. A big reason: the way Noles athletics is structured within the university.
Florida State’s athletic department is considered a division of the school itself and gets money from the university’s coffers. But it’s structure, while widespread, is not universal; UF’s University Athletic Association is considered a private business and generates its own revenue. While this may seem trite, a self-disciplinary policy would have vastly different effects depending on the school receiving sanctions.
Because Florida State sports are intertwined with the university, there is the possibility for administrators to fudge the pre-set guidelines if the sports teams start exhibiting exceedingly good behavior or are in need of cash. The idea is about as effective as a sugar-crazed kid trying to swear off the temptations of cookies and cake right before dinner. Sure, it’ll probably work for a little while, but the forbidden treats will continue to nag at him until dessert becomes irresistable.
At Florida, the school and its athletic department’s separation work to its advantage. Because there isn’t as much of a “cash bond”, the Gator sports teams have fewer excuses to cross the line. It’s much easier for UF’s big brass to play the parent in this scenario.
Of course, I could be horribly wrong. There’s a possibly that the garnet and gold patch learn from their mistakes and right the ship. I’ll give the guys in the state capital the benefit of the doubt in this scenario - for now.
And for the angry contingent of Bowden faithful who think that I wrote a pile of [insert appropriate expletive] because I hate their [insert another fitting expletive], allow me to play the traitor for a moment and offer up UF in the flames.
Twenty years ago, we were just like you. Then-football-coach Charley “Give ‘em hell” Pell was slapped with so many NCAA santions that it made Indiana hoops coach Kelvin Sampson look like an angel. You name it, he did it.
So Florida fired and rehired relevant personell. Amongst their new personell, a New Englander and former UF ticketmaster named Jeremy Foley as Athletic Director. But a big part of their reform, and here’s the caveat:
THEY FIRED THE COACH RESPONSIBLE AND REPLACED HIM A RULEMONGER
Yeah, I know. You adore Coach Bowden and never want him to leave. And we both know that the whole music class mess wasn’t his fault to begin with. But there are pros and cons to him stepping down like there are with him staying.
The biggest pro: 17-16-1 (curse you, Choke at Doak!), his current lifetime record against UF. If he stays for one more season and steps down, he doesn’t leave with a losing record against his fiercest rival. Besides, letting Jimbo Fisher, the “coach-in-waiting”, step in and coach the program provides stability at the position in the years to come. But, irate columnist or not, he’s entitled to make his own decisions on his future. I’ll give him that much.
Peace out. At least we both hate the Miami Hurricanes and their five titles.
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12 Comments so far
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I hope Bowden stays as long as he possibly can. Allowing a coach that can’t even effectively coach to keep his job speaks of arrogance, myopia and above all an apprehension of future changes to the point of cowardice. Or, as I like to refer to it as: “all in a days work for the FSU Administration.” Possibly the only person with a bigger ego than Bowden in Tallahassee is the hapless, sycophantic president, TK Wetherell. They deserve each other, and they more importantly deserve to crash and burn with each other. See you on Ron Zook field this coming November, boys!
By rjsplow on 02.14.08 4:30 pm
I just hope the pool boy that carries Bobby’s head set wasn’t suspended.
By mlmintampa on 02.14.08 6:01 pm
Viva la Bowden!!! May he coach forever!
By Keltic Gator on 02.14.08 7:31 pm
I’ll take that as a sign of respect for the man. A personality like him deserves to go out with at least some dignity.
Although why FSU and Kentucky would appoint successors named Jimbo and Joker is beyond me.
By Vince Gagliano on 02.14.08 7:37 pm
This has to be really bad for Bowden who has been trying to preserve his legacy. FSU has already started scheduling non div 1 schools to preserve the wins for Bobby, but now, he is gonna have to retire while the school, his beloved football program, is under NCAA sanctions. Ouch!
By rick on 02.15.08 8:09 am
To watch a legacy slowly diminish solely for greed and wanting to get the most wins is humorous at best sad at worst. If you can stomach it, watch his show the day after games. It’s sad, he doesn’t know the players names and really doesn’t know what happened during the game.
By urbanisagod on 02.15.08 9:10 am
Ok – let me try to stir this up a bit:
We all remember the Charlie Pell fiasco we endured. And then there was the FSU Free Shoes University scandal, and now this latest FSU cheating fiasco.
Why is it then that when Miami went through their sanctions in the 90’s, that ESPN printed a front page declaration that the Miami program should be disbanded…
Why isn’t anyone screaming for FSU disbandment?
Is Miami that much better than us and FSU that only they get front page ESPN disbandment demands, meanwhile we and FSU seem to get less, arguably even a pass? :)
By rick on 02.15.08 11:52 am
Great point, Rick. Go to espn and you barely get a whisper of what’s going on. They love ole liver spots.
By urbanisagod on 02.15.08 12:11 pm
ESPN and ESPN.com weren’t really major presences when UF was hit with sanctions in the 1980s, so I don’t think you can claim some bias in UF vs. UM reporting on their part (at least not on this evidence) — different eras, different approach to reporting violations.
And although FSU has been a disgrace for a long time, for crimes barely worth repeating, I recall the ESPN declaration coming at a time when academic and recruiting violations were the LEAST of UM’s problems. UM’s issues at the time were, uh, criminal in nature. To wit, defecating in a woman’s laundry basket — and that was one of the non-violent issues.
By Dub on 02.15.08 12:39 pm
Ok Dub, but c’mon, man. To claim that Miami was that much worse than a lot of other schools is crazy.
I am a bit embarrassed every time I look at Randy Shannon and see that scar on his forehead that he received here at the Swamp when one of our students hit him with a garbage can when he was an assistant coach at Miami. There is enough criminal to go around in college sports.
Its how the different schools handle it that separates them.
Look at Oklahoma last year when they immediately dismissed their starting QB when they discovered he was taking money on the side… thats a school that did the right thing, while others try to take a pass.
Just take a look at the whole USC Reggie Bush thing. There is proof that Reggie Bush illegally took money, and the NCAA is looking into it. We all THINK something is going to happen, but that school is still claiming ignorance (…yeah, right). When you recruit these kids and make home visits and see how they live… then suddenly they are driving brand new fully loaded SUV’s and living in mansions… It’s just too hard to credibly claim complete ignorance. We all agree that taking money is pretty bad and maybe even worse than the FSU cheating scandal, and yet there have not been scholarships mentioned at the USC thing.
That’s going to be an interesting one to watch. I look for Reggie Bush to give up his Heisman at the least, and if that happens, what about their National Championship? (Any comments?)
I’ll bet this one is a nightmare for the NCAA… they probably hope it just “goes away”.
But again - no cries from ESPN to dismantle the USC program. Does that mean that Miami is that much better than USC? I mean the whole NCAA Miami thing was about players taking money. :)
By rick on 02.15.08 1:16 pm
I’ll be the last one to defend the NCAA’s honor, at least against charges of inconsistency (or hypocrisy) — though I do think their efforts are underappreciated. But if we are shooting for consistency, I’d be in favor of hitting schools harder, rather than using easy treatment of others to defend ugly periods in some program’s history.
I think the big reason USC isn’t being raked over the coals is that the principals involved in the Bush mess aren’t affiliated with USC. It was sort of private misdeeds — and note, they didn’t pay Bush to go to USC even, they paid his family so he’d hire them as agents when he jumped to the NFL.
Is this quibbling, or do these distinctions matter? I don’t know. But from the perspective of The Masses what matters is whether a program is out of control, or failing its student-athletes, etc. And I don’t think you could say that USC is doing that. Miami back in the day, Florida before that, Alabama and Albert Means, and FSU perpetually? Those were persistent, deep problems with programs. USC and Reggie Bush? Yipping about Urban Meyer talking about a gymnastics scholarship? One-time stuff that doesn’t point to some deeper corruption. But the FSU thing is all about the AD’s corruption, and the Miami stretch of REALLY bad behavior, well, that looked like a program out of control to me.
By Dub on 02.15.08 2:16 pm
Well, then… I guess we mostly agree.
By rick on 02.15.08 3:34 pm
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