UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, March 20, 1996
3B
Florida State dodges bullet in NCAA rules investigation
School gets probation for shoe store scandal
The Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida State won another big one today, escaping serious NCAA penalties following a two-year investigation that began after a much-publicized shopping spree by Seminole football players.
The NCAA imposed a one-year probation on the football program for failing to properly monitor the activities of sports agents on its campus.
However, there was no ban on postseason play, no TV appearance ban and no lost scholarships.
The probation took effect Feb. 3, the date school officials met with the NCAA Committee on Infractions.
The NCAA also warned Florida State that it must avoid another major rules violation for five years or face further action.
Coach Bobby Bowden was not immediately available for comment. Florida State president Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte and athletic director Dave Hart scheduled an afternoon news conference to respond to the decision.
In 1993, a group of sports agents took several Florida State football players on a $6,000 shopping spree at a local Foot Locker sporting goods store. The incident prompted
the NCAA investigation.
The NCAA praised the action taken by Florida State officials in responding to the compliance problems, which came to light in an article in Sports Illustrated in May 1994.
In addition to the probation, the NCAA publicly reprimanded and censured Florida State for the violations and ordered the school to develop a more thorough athletics compliance education program and recertify its current policies and practices.
The infractions committee, made up of five university faculty, a retired attorney and a practicing attorney from across the country, found four major violations of NCAA rules by Florida State all related to institutional control of the university's athletics program.
"Had the institution taken appropriate action and reviewed the information, it might have prevented and at least detected the violations earlier," the NCAA said. "The institution also failed to take sufficient actions to investigative possible violations."
The NCAA said Florida State had failed to properly follow up on a report from a football dormitory supervisor who had reported seeing agents around the players, particularly on game weekends.
The committee also said the school and Atlantic Coast Conference should have investigated further a signed agency contract with a player who had one year of eligibility remaining. Both had concluded
there was insufficient evidence to find a violation of NCAA rules.
A third violation surrounded the failure of the school's former compliance director to act on a report from a Florida State student that several football players took part in a shopping spree that was paid for by agents.
The fourth violation was the failure of a former football coach to report a telephone call from an agent who lived in Tallahassee and knew of contact with a Seminole player.
Florida State paid a Kansas City law firm almost $500,000 to conduct an internal investigation into the shopping spree and additional allegations involving the activities of unlicensed sports agents.
Although the NCAA enforcement staff reported no major violations or lack of institutional control in January, its report revealed, the infractions committee's concern about the failure of Florida State to adequately monitor sports agents on campus.
Florida State had acknowledged 14 NCAA rules violations found in its own internal investigation.
Eight of the violations involved the November 1993 after-hours shopping spree in which several players received about $6,000 worth of merchandise paid for by unlicensed sports agents.
Five of the players who accepted clothes or shoes from the store were suspended in the 1994 season for between two and four games.
POLLARD:
Continued from Page 1.
blocker in Big Eight Conference history.
Already this season, Kansas has 193 blocks, including 77 from Pollard.
But he is selective in the shots he swats.
Richard Devinki / KANSAN
"I'm not going to foul trying to block shots," he said. "I get fouls just posting up."
Worrying is something Pollard does very little of.
He's the one with the towel draped over his head when he's on the bench.
Kansas coach Roy Williams has said that one of Ostertag's greatest strengths was his ability not only to block shots but also to alter them. That is a strength Pollard is trying to emulate.
"If I can make people nervous about taking the ball inside, that's what I want to do," he said. "People can think of me as a shot blocker. Really the best part about it is that the other team starts worrying about it."
Kansas center Scot Pollard's mother, Marlyn; sister, Lyne; and brothers Mark and Carl watch Kansas play last weekend in Tempe, Ariz.
He's the one hopping around after an ally-oop dunk.
He's the one playing to the television camera.
"He's always been that way," Lyne Pollard said. "We'd go on family trips, and he'd be in the back of the Suburban, banging on things and singing. Dad would say, 'Scot, shut up.'"
Williams would contend that little has changed.
"He's a flake and a very good-natured flake at that," he said. "He
enjoys what he's doing. If what he's doing is not fun, he's going to figure out a way to make it fun."
At the same time, though, Pollard focuses solely on basketball during practices and games. Williams said.
Pollard hopes that he'll be focusing on a few more games this season. If he and the Jayhawks make it to the Final Four in East Rutherford, N.J., a few other Pollards probably will be there.
"Even if we have to crawl," Marlyn Pollard said.
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