How ugly is this New York Times story on purported academic favoritism for football players at Florida State? Put it this way: that the academics in question were “online hospitality courses on coffee, tea and wine” is the most benign part of the story. There’s plenty of sleaze to go around, in other words. Sad, but hardly shocking.
Given the NCAA’s current face off with North Carolina over alleged academic improprieties there, you have to wonder if they’ll jump in on this one.
Get The Picture 
Wasn’t quite ready for that ending…
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…. you aren’t the only one.
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Does FSU have an In-hospitality Degree and graduates that go to work for the CIA and Blackwater/Treadstone. This looks suspicious to me and possibly a graduate project for a Doctorate from FSU’s In-hospitality Degree. And I thought “Free Shoes” were a problem. Holy Crap! I certainly will not mess with Noles football.
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I am no fan of FSU but doesn’t the ending hurt her credibility? Wilder says he submitted work that was not credited and the professor says he didn’t turn it in. She gets fired because she isn’t qualified for a job, is unable to keep a steady job and dies of a drug overdose. Why does she get the benefit of the doubt and Wilder doesn’t?
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There are clear samples of pure plagiarism that routinely merit an automatic grade of F at any university. That these players passed and kept playing is a disgrace to FSU. I strongly suspect, however, that similar situations occur at most big-time sports schools, including the one in dear old Athens.
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When there is a “he said she said” between a professor and a student the professor gets the benefit of the doubt, not the student. As someone who teaches at the college level, I can promise you students routinely claim to hand in stuff in that they never did. When they start whining all you have to do is say, well if you did the work and handed it in then you have a copy of it and it’s time stamped. Get it to me in less than 24 hours and I’ll consider it. Crickets every time. They can never produce the work because they never did it in the first place. The story stated that even when deadlines were extended against the teacher’s will the work was still not handed in. As Doggoned correctly pointed out, blatant plagiarism, was proven on more than one occasion. This is supposed to get a student expelled on the first offense. It’s one thing there is absolutely zero tolerance for in academia. Furthermore, the teacher wasn’t fired for not being qualified. She was fired for bringing this situation to public attention. The.coordinator of the program ‘moved on’ and the program itself was suddenly beefed up. That’s called covering your ass.
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Did you read and compare the report with the source material. He cut and pasted it. He did not even change the formatting or even the font, for pete’s sake.
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Well obviously the solution is to also pay these poor, exploited players out there toiling on the plantation.
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Or they shouldn’t be forced to play school.
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A Jan Kemp for the 21st Century, if you will.
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Where the hell is the NCAA? That FSU team won the f*cking BCS National Championship with players that should have been ineligible and a rapist at QB. This story is outrageous.
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Brick by brick, the NCAA is tearing down what used to be an enjoyable sport.
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You are on very weak ground with the rape charge, and you know it. But since we have all hashed that out hundreds of times I know you won’t let facts/lack of evidence deter you. FSU, like all major schools in D1 football and basketball are guilty, to some degree, academic fraud. Doesn’t mean all players are, just that schools color outside of the lines to get, and keep, many players eligible. We all laugh about the term “student athlete”, and we should. Love to see it cleaned up, but at all schools, not just the ones who are investigated periodically.
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Hey FSU has one of the biggest hospitality degree programs in the US and for a very good reason it’s Florida. The NCAA has no right to criticize courses that are offered to the general student population, that is the job of the Accreditation agencies. The only reason UGA got in trouble for Harrick Jr’s course was UGA didn’t have the collective balls that UNC has. If athletes are getting grades and credit for courses they are not attending then the NCAA has a point. As long as the course offered is in the catalogue it’s beyond the reach of the NCAA. Remember Jan Kemp involved remedial classes and tutors helping out too much. The truly awful part of the student-athlete’s academic problems is that they have been let down by their high schools in the first place. Remember this is not new, years ago (1980s)Dexter Manley graduated from Oklahoma State as a functional illiterate football player who went on to the Pro’s and later testified about it to a Congressional committee about how it happens all the time.
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“Remember this is not new,”
However, the surgical precision used by FSU to implant the doctoral student received high marks
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Speaking of functionally illiterate, remember, this guy got into both UGA and Auburn:
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Looks like the Senator is #talkinboutthenoles
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Most of the kids who play at Division I programs – and just about all the ones on scholarship – aren’t there because they’re scholars. They’re there to play sports and make money for the university and athletic conference.
Make playing the game a major in itself. Lord knows there are infinite ways to measure and grade player performance. Either that or end academic requirements altogether and acknowledge that at least the football and basketball programs are minor leagues for the pros. If some players want an education, too, then more power to them. If they don’t, then end the hypocrisy about “scholar-athletes.”
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No, the kids are there because playing in college is the ONLY path to playing pro football in the NFL. Colleges were/are forced to take players who are nowhere near good enough students or smart enough to be in college. The dumbing down of entrance requirements for athletes in football and basketball combined with the NFL and NBA making arbitrary rules about how old a legal adult must be to have a job they are otherwise qualified for is the reason for the academic “scandals” in college sports.
You notice you rarely ever hear of academic scandals on the tennis, golf, volleyball, equestrian, gymnastics, etc. teams. That is because the athletes on those teams have to be admitted to the school before they can receive the scholarship. Do away with the lower entrance requirements for football and basketball players and you will do away with the academic scandals and the vast majority of the crime problems around college athletes.
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I don’t know about y’all, but all the dogs in my neighborhood are barking after that comment.
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Very funny, great comment. Thanks
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Our pill selling tennis team would like to have a word with you.
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They are just not in the news. Ole Miss started with a tennis investigation. So did Soithern Cal with Reggie.
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And a lot of my well to do fraternity brothers are very glad there’s a statute of limitations.
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A thousand word feature story describing Football Favoritism and not one single reference to Auburn? FOI request for the author’s latest personal bank deposits is in order.
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Another player turned in writing of his own that was barely grade-school level. “Brazilian coffee is one of few places that has a carnival and the coffee place a major role just as much as the dancing and the food,” he wrote.
Enough said.
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Well they can’t blame the Tallahassee police for this one. Sad story.
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At least students at UNC’s courses had to write 25 page papers. What happened at UNC was just wrong, and lots of people were sent packing over it, from the Chancellor on down. SACS extracted their pound of flesh, and the NCAA is about to drop a bomb on the Tar Heels. So yeah, FSU probably picked a poor time for this to drop.
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I live in Monticello Fl, thirty miles from the campus of fsu. The local rag here (Tallahassee Democrat) prints many stories of athletes getting in trouble with the law and suffer no consequences. Stories of graduates that can not read above a grade school level. ACC… All crap conference.
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The irony, MD, is that back when conferences were free to set own academic requirements for athletic scholarships the ACC had a higher qualification standard than the SEC. For the example, Joe Namath wanted to go to the University of Maryland but academically he could not meet the ACC academic standard for a scholarship. He then offered himself to Alabama and UGA. Alabama was on him first and was a better program, so he went to Alabama.
The ACC academic qualification for a scholarship rule was the primary reason South Carolina withdrew from the ACC. It was losing a lot of SC kids to the SEC.
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Big, I feel true.
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