Popularity Is A Powerful Factor

Two colleges, both in the same conference. One has a consistently strong football team, while the other has achieved sporadic success(especially in recent history). And what happens when they each experience academic troubles?

Well, FSU's cheating scandal got a ton of press, while Virginia's loss of some of their top players hasn't seem to garner that much attention. Granted, FSU's problems occured right before their bowl game, but Virginia is looking at entering this season without their starting quarterback(Jameel Sewell), starting cornderback(Chris Cook) or starting defensive end(Jeffrey Fitzgerald).

Fitzgerald is the latest player to leave the university due to academic problems, though it's unclear exactly what happened.

Sports information director Jim Daves confirmed Monday the sophomore from Richmond, who is been expected to take over as the team’s top pass-rusher with the departure of Chris Long to the NFL, is no longer a student but declined to comment further, citing privacy issues.

Up to this point, I haven't heard or read anyone question the level of teaching, tutoring and testing that the athletes get at UVA. I guess sometimes it's nice to not be the best because it shields you from a bit scrutiny every once in a while.

Keeping The Seminoles Out Of Sports Stores Is Priority #1

Florida State has hired a new director of its Athletics Academics Support Program in the wake of the cheating scandal that hit the school right before its Music City Bowl game. His name is Bill Shults, and he actually used to be an FSU employee before.

From 1979 to 1992 he coached swimming at FSU, and then he was the university's assistant director for NCAA compliance for five years before leaving in 1997. Having someone familiar with the school is definitely a good thing, but not everything ran smoothly under Shults' watch when he was the assistant director.

No, in 1993 seven FSU players were involved in a $6,000 shopping spree at a Foot Locker store that was paid for by an unregistered sports agent. Five of those players were suspended for games during the '94 season for "accepting shoes, clothing and other gifts in violation of National Collegiate Athletic Association rules".

And guess who was supposed to assist in keeping the university compliant with NCAA regulations? That's right, Bill Shults.

Obviously, not every football player can be watched all of the time. However, it is up to school officials to make sure that the players understand the rules, and that breaking them not only damages their reputation but hurts their teammates and school. Somewhere along the way that didn't exactly happen, and Bill Shults was one of the top guys when it occured.

Oh well, I'm sure that Tallahassee will welcome him back with open arms as long as he keeps the players away from shoe stores, and discourages them from cheating on online exams.

Xavier Lee Done At FSU

It's being reported this morning that Xavier Lee will not return to Florida State for another season of football. If true, it would be the end of a turbulent four years that began with Lee heading to Tallahassee as a top recruit, and finished with him not playing in the team's bowl game against Kentucky.

When he committed to Florida State, it appeared that Lee was going to come in, learn the ropes and then challenge for the starting position in 2005. When Wyatt Sexton contracted Lyme Disease and was ruled out for the '05 season, it seemed that Lee had a shot at beating out Drew Weatherford for the starting quarterback role. However, he wasn't able to outperform Weatherford, and from that moment on he never looked completely comfortable running the offense. He had some flashes here and there, but never seemed to grow into the type of quarterback that Coach Bowden and his staff had envisioned when they recruited Lee.

Eventhough I'm a Florida Gator, it is sad to see someone as talented as Xavier Lee not live up to the expectations that his past success had warranted. I don't think you can place full blame on either Lee or the coaching staff, as I'm sure that they each can share it. However, I was aware of Lee's tremendous talent and potential when he was in high school, and I'm sad to see that his college career hasn't worked out very well. Though, that's sort of the "business" side of college athletics.

Good luck to Lee in his quest to play in the NFL someday.

It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere - Monday Afternoon Edition

Yeah, this usually appears on Friday. However, with all of the festivities(beer pong, overeating, hours of retina burning football action) it didn't quite make it to the Interwebs. That might be a good thing, though because since then the Gators beat the Seminoles 45-12. There's not much to say, except that Tebow and the Gators played quite well and that he should win the Heisman. Other than that, you can check out the highlights down below.



Happy Belated Friday!

The ACC Gives Us Further Evidence Of Bizarro Season

Florida State quarterback Drew Weatherford has been named "ACC Offensive Back Of The Week" after leading the Seminoles to a 27-17 victory against the then ranked #2 Boston College Eagles.

Yes, you read that right. Drew Weatherford has been named the "player of the week" in a major college conference. Granted he played well against B.C. and Duke, but just weeks ago he was sitting on the bench against Miami, N.C. State and Alabama and was largely ineffective against Wake Forest and Colorado.

He never gave up, though and that perserverance paid off in the upset win against B.C. Now, if he could keep up that level of play, then the Seminoles would be a pretty formidable team. However, I hope he gets all of the quality play out of his system before November 24.

Update To The FSU Recruits That Received Lifetime Bans From Disney

A quick update to the situation involving FSU football recruits, and them receiving lifetime bans from Disney. Disney has decided to restore the recruits' park privileges to everything except Downtown Disney, and that ban will only last for one year, not a lifetime.

"Disney officials, after talking with the mother of one of the teens, decided to revise the trespass warnings so that the four are banned only from Downtown Disney -- not from the theme parks, water parks or other parts of Disney World. And the Downtown Disney ban will last only for one year, not a lifetime."

Disney has stated that this is their "final offer" so to speak, and that they won't be issuing any type of apology. It's unclear whether the recruits and their families will accept Disney's decision.

"We were hoping they would lift the ban entirely. We felt like they shouldn't have been banned at all. We also wanted an apology," said Mark Nugent, stepfather of Vincent Williams, a football star at Ridge Community High School in Polk County. "It looks like we're not getting either of those two things."

Obviously, Disney feels like they overreacted to the situation, but they're not willing to retract 100%. It will be interesting to see if any lawsuits still arise because of this incident.

Even Mickey Mouse Hates The Criminoles

Recently, Disney has been trying to crack down on what it calls "ganglike activity" taking place at its Downtown Disney attraction. In case you've never been there, it's an open space with lots of shops, restaurants and entertainment venues. Disney has a no-loitering policy in place there, though it seems like it would be somewhat difficult to enforce due to the way it's set up.

Over the past two weekends, Disney really "turned up the heat", and ended up issuing 48 warnings in that timespan. They also ejected and permanently banned 46 people during that time. It turns out that four of the people ejected and banned are top football prospects for the Florida State Seminoles.

"Walt Disney World ejected four of Florida State University's top football prospects from Downtown Disney last weekend under its anti-gang, no-loitering policy.

The four, including the son of a Disney manager and the son of a Philadelphia civil-rights lawyer, were banned for life from Disney World property late Friday.

A Disney spokeswoman said the youths were expelled because they had been loitering for an extended period and refused to leave when Disney security told them to."

The four kids are going to be seniors this fall, and have all made oral commitments to play for FSU. They are:

Vincent Williams: #10 ranked inside linebacker(rivals.com)

Avis Commack: #51 ranked wide receiver(rivals.com)

Nigel Carr: #3 ranked outside linebacker(rivals.com)

Nick Moody: #5 ranked safety(rivals.com)

While it would be easy for me to poke fun at FSU fans for their recruits getting trouble, it does sound like the Disney employees may have been engaging in some racial profiling. Per the Orlando Sentinel article:

"Three cases involved white teens. Of those, two were banned only from the Virgin Megastore and are free to return anytime to Disney. Records show the only white teen banned so far from Disney was accused of creating a disturbance outside the Planet Hollywood restaurant by loitering, arguing with Disney guards, swearing at them and refusing to leave the property."

It will be interesting to see how this unfolds because Moody's father is a civil rights attorney, and Williams' mother works for Disney. Oftentimes people complain(many times rightfully so) that athletes, and celebrities in general, don't get punished harshly enough, however in this case being an athlete that was punished harshly might serve the greater good if it's uncovered that Disney did engage in profiling, and the kids are able to return to the attraction and receive an apology.

Walter Dix, Faster Than Everyone You Know Even if You Know Trindon Holliday

Since I posted on Thursday about Trindon Holliday running the third fastest 100m in the world this year I felt compelled to give an update with Walter Dix's accomplishments.

Dix, a sprinter for Florida State, faced off against Holliday in the 100m finals at the NCAA Track and Field Championships on Friday. He not only beat Holliday, but he ran the fastest 100m, a 9.93, in the world so far this year(Asafa Powell had previously run a 9.97). He was also just one-one hundreth away from running the fastest NCAA 100m ever. Ato Bolden set that record, 9.92, while running for UCLA in 1998. Holliday finished second in Friday's race with a 10.06.

In the absence of having footage of Dix's 9.92 run, I have posted up the video of him breaking the NCAA 200m record last month. Yeah, he's the guy who's all alone out front.