NCAA penalizes Florida State athletics

As the Florida State men's golf team was compiling a four-over 292 team score Friday in the opening round of its home event, the Seminole Intercollegiate, the NCAA announced a series of penalties it was imposing on the school's entire athletic program stemming from academic violations that occurred during the fall semester of 2006 through the summer of 2007.

Among other penalties, Florida State was put on probation for four years and had scholarships reduced in 10 sports--including men's golf. The announcement came after an investigation that determined more than 60 student-athletes in the 10 sports were involved in academic fraud involving a music course.

No names of student-athletes were listed in the report, but because at least one member of the men's golf team was involved, the school already had applied a self-imposed reduction in the squad's grants-in-aid for this year from 4.5 scholarships to 4.36. The NCAA did not reduce the scholarship limitation an further for the sport.

The NCAA also decided that all wins in which the student-athletes competed while ineligible during 2006 and 2007 must be vacated. Florida State officials have 90 days to report to the NCAA statistics departments the ineligible student-athletes and the contests that should be impacted by penalties. The Seminole men's golf team didn't win any tournaments during the time period in question. Their ACC championship victory in 2008 was won after the academic fraud had occurred.