Thoughts on Seminole Scandals
Posted by Kate Ewing
 By Kate Ewing
When it was announced at the beginning of the football season that twenty-three Florida State athletes in nine sports were involved in an academic scandal, I thought not again. Despite the fact that only two football players were involved, I knew this was trouble. Answers to online tests for one class were being given out by a tutor. However, despite this initial announcement, nothing more came of it, other than the four-game suspension of wide receiver Joslin Shaw. This was true until two days ago. Then it was announced that twenty-three Noles were suspended for the bowl game against Kentucky, as more academic impropriety had been discovered. Papers were written for players in addition to the online test answers given out by the tutors. And while some of the players are walk-ons, eleven have starting experience. However, due to the Federal laws involved with NCAA violations, names haven’t been revealed.
This seems to be just a disappointing end to a disappointing season, but for me it’s more than that. I’ve posted on other blogs under the pseudonym Criminole, which has been a nickname of the Noles since the Footlocker scandal in 1994. I’ve supported this team through Warrick’s Dillards escapades, Jano’s hard partying, AD’s gambling, Sexton’s thinking he was God and countless other incidents. However, it gets old. I got rid of the Criminole blog two years ago and keep hoping that the team will follow suit and change their ways, but I’m not sure.
The criminal escapades weren’t a problem when the team was winning, despite being critiqued by every news source on the planet, but not that the last title is eight years gone, it’s time to change. I hope that the four-game suspensions that are looming is enough to bring changes to a program that needs a new direction. A new staff didn’t do as much as we’d hoped, but maybe pulling together in the face of mass suspensions will allow this team to bond and demonstrate the talent that we saw in Chestnut Hill.
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Nancy on 
Nole4ever on 
Abe Fr0man on 
Foot Locker 1994
Warrick 1999
Jano’s partying 1998 &1999
(why is being a hard drinking 21 year old a crime?)
Those were while we were winning. Since then you state one guy who had one night and had a legitimate medical cause. Kate you should look around at other programs and compare what is going on. Yes this is not good. Yes we could list others. But our program is no different than most groups of young organized men. There are going to be some bad kids. In this case it was a tutor and not the students. Oh right, a 19 year old kid is going to refuse things offered to him. Sorry my bad. I guess you have never had a friend cut you a deal.
But it’s not like one of our players fired off an ak-47 in a parking lot to scare some people.
“A new staff didn’t do as much as we’d hoped, but maybe pulling together in the face of mass suspensions will allow this team to bond and demonstrate the talent that we saw in Chestnut Hill.”
Ok… People like you aren’t true Noles fans. It wont happen over-night. It takes a couple seasons for systems to be working smoothly. I hate people that say “oh, it’s not working we need to do something different.” NO! We’re taking the right steps, it takes time. So sit back, and try to enjoy the next couple seasons. We’ll be back before long.