All the Florida State Seminoles (and those of that nation) need do is look to the southeast to the Florida Gators and understand there would be no mercy coming from the NCAA in its current infractions sweep thorough Tallahassee. When the Gators got the chair in 1984, after being found guilty on about all counts involving recruiting and free this and free that and illegal scouting, they got mad, firing Coach Charley Pell and others after being sentenced to no bowls, loss of scholarships and losing plenty of face with potential recruits. It was about as bad as you can get.

Pell left and later died in his native Alabama and the Gators were about as frustrated and as regretful as a university can be, and as badly publicized as possible. There appeared to be no end to the disgrace and the bottoming out.

Well, there was and if FSU can stiff-upper-lip it and look at Florida once again, the Gators certainly are proof there is life in the fastest lane after the sentencing of about all the NCAA can muster, in penalty, mind you, for the sins of those Pell times of irregularities, for there were surely those. The Gators of the horrid times in the mid-80s are now thrice national champions, got a marvelous returning class and Top 5 forecast for this fall.

My, they came back from those black-hole days and nights to some of the grandest of times ever at The Swamp, at Atlanta, at New Orleans, at Phoenix, and at Miami under Coach Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer and with the immortalizing play of quarterbacks Danny Wuerffel, Chris Leak, and now the wonder, Tim Tebow.

Can be done, Noles. You proved it too in the past but more recently in these times, and you have that resurrection of the Gators a bit east of you to use as a model, if you can make yourself do it. But, for the moment, the NCAA has the cards and is dealing.

This, of course, is not just all about the problems of that big-time school at Tallahassee. I mean, If you haven’t been too caught up in the Iranian puzzle, or the economic downturn, the solid play of the Tampa Bay Rays, the NHL playoffs, or just Twittering, Florida is also preparing for yet another season, with most of the two-deep players from last year readying for the SEC opener against the Tennessee Volunteers.

But surely you are aware of the slipups at Tallahassee that have caused the NCAA Infractions Committee to uphold sanctions against FSU that would take away wins in 10 sports, including as many as 10 by the customarily-clean Bobby Bowden. Bowden is not implicated, but it all happened on his watch. That has got to bother this decent man plenty.

In a move said unrelated to the alleged misdeeds, FSU President T. K. Wetherell, 63, is retiring (effective when a replacement is found) because of health problems and a desire to have a life away from the world of a college president’s desk. Wetherell is a fine man. He is a former FSU safety and good one. He was a fit. His leaving is too bad for the university, for athletics. The new housing at FSU around the stadium is named for him.

The alleged misdeeds are in no way the fault, he said, of Bowden and the coaches. “The one group not involved was the coaches,” he said, “And they are the one group that is being penalized,” by insinuation. The punishment could take away 10 victories for Bowden, who at the moment has 382 career wins, one fewer than record-holder Joe Paterno of Penn State. If the infractions committee recommendation stands, those 10 would be nullified.

The NCAA inquiry said 61 Seminoles cheated on an online course in a Music History test (Music History, yes, Music History, right) from the fall of 2006 through the summer of 2007 or received improper help from staffers who provided them with answers to the exam and typed their papers for them.

The NCAA called Florida State’s staff involvement in the cheating “especially egregious because of their positions as individuals charged specifically with maintaining academic integrity with the athletic program.”

It is not done. FSU will appeal one more time in Indianapolis with oral arguments. The final decision will be made then on FSU’s case. The FSU attorney had no idea when the meeting will take place. The punishment includes the loss of two football scholarships next year, then another the next. 

History does not support an expectation of a lessening of the committee’s punishment as meted out now.

Believe me, the Gators know the feeling.