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A recent trend in punishments for college football programs is the vacating of past wins. Being the cynic I am, I don’t agree with this practice, and here’s why.

The old system worked. If a school cheats at recruiting, or if they put academically ineligible players on the field, they deserve to be punished. The NCAA used to put schools on probation, which would limit their number of available scholarships as well as banning them from postseason bowl games for a certain amount of time in more severe cases. The team, as a result, is unable to sign as many players per recruiting class, forcing players to walk on to the team and ensuring a lesser talent level. Without the talent level or legal ability to play in a bowl game for x amount of years, usually three, the team loses some of its prestige and money. A devastating blow to the program in such a manner ensures the coaching staff won’t try to pull a fast one on the NCAA again.

For some bizarre reason, the practice recently has added vacating past wins to the loss of scholarships. First of all, how do you vacate a win? Do you go back in time and forfeit, changing the records of both the team and their opponents? No, you can’t do that. And to change the records after the fact creates controversy due to the fact that a possible fraudulent loss could have been the difference in a team’s season, whether it would have resulted in a national championship or bowl appearance, or even to save a coach’s job. It doesn’t mean anything to go back and say the win is vacated. You can’t change what happened, so don’t label it with some bogus asterisk.

By vacating wins, you’re also tainting a coach’s legacy whether it’s his fault or not. Take the recent example of so many Florida Gators and their arrest records. Urban Meyer is catching heat for it for no reason – the overwhelming majority of those players with arrest records were recruited by former Gator coach Ron Zook. A similar situation exists with Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide. It was under Mike Shula’s watch that Alabama players abused their scholarships to obtain free textbooks and other materials for other students, yet Saban’s team has to forfeit 21 wins. An appeal has been made, but the point remains valid; Shula isn’t even at the school anymore, so what is the point of vacating wins and punishing current players?

Even being a Gator fan as I am, I’m most appalled by the current situation involving Bobby Bowden and Florida State’s current vacating wins scandal. A number of students cheated in their classes, and became academically ineligible as a result. I’m not disputing that. If you cheat, you should be expelled immediately. The fact that the school did not expel these students, nor did they notify Coach Bowden of their cheating, is what angers me. Here is one of the greatest coaches of all time in any sport, nearing 80 years old, and being told he has to surrender 14 wins because of something he didn’t even know about. Bowden is currently one game behind 82 year old Joe Paterno for the all-time wins record, and both are active coaches. This effectively gives Bowden, the former holder of the record, absolutely no chance to win it back.

NCAA officials, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Are you honestly going to deprive a great coach and innocent man the chance to regain his record? Are you honestly going to smear his good name over something the Athletic Director should have been punished for? I hate the Seminoles as much as any Gator fan, but this is injustice. There is no telling how this will affect Coach Bowden, and given his age, it could be more serious than the NCAA has considered. You could be putting his already questionable health at risk by inducing stress over this whole situation, and that’s not right.

Florida State has appealed the ruling, but let’s face facts – it’s not going to happen. They already lose scholarships for this violation, and I think a postseason ban is more appropriate. Playing one fewer game every year for three years is a much more fitting punishment than giving up two years worth of victories. The NCAA needs to take a long, hard look at itself and re-evaluate this travesty of a system before it’s too late.

Let me give you something else to think about – Spygate. Remember that? The New England Patriots were caught filming the opponents’ signals on the sidelines, then reviewing the tapes at halftime. At least nothing Florida State or Alabama did was directly cheating; nothing occurred to change the outcome of the game. The Patriots were cheating to ensure being able to read the defense and offense, hence calling audibles and turning the tables in their favor. But wait a minute, that’s not all. New England had just won three of the last four Super Bowls, which included this practice as far back as taping St Louis Rams practices the week before their first Super Bowl win. All the NFL did was take away the Patriots’ first round draft pick the following year.

Are you kidding me? Cheating that directly affected the outcome of many games, including Super Bowls, and all you’re giving them is a slap on the wrist? That’s just disgusting. All three Patriot Super Bowl wins were by three points each. You’re going to take away wins from Bobby Bowden over something he didn’t know about and let Bill Belichick keep wins and championships when he personally ordered the cheating practices? Give the Rams, Panthers, and Eagles the Super Bowl rings they deserve. After all, they nearly won in spite of the dubious practices of the Patriots. If you’re going to vacate wins for college, do it for the professional games too.

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The college football season is rapidly approaching, and the Florida Gators will try to capture back-to-back championships for the first time in school history. Both previous attempts ended in heartbreak, with the 1997 Gators losing to both LSU and the University of Georgia, and the 2007 Gators dropping three out of four games midway through the season. The Gators are the definition of college football excellence, being the winningest program in Division 1 since 1990. But how will Florida fare this year?

Taking a look at the 2009 schedule, the Gators have their best opportunity yet to win a second consecutive title. Three out of their four non-conference games are against weak opponents (Charleston Southern, Troy, and Florida International), and all four non-SEC opponents take on the Gators in The Swamp. Their schedule does not contain Alabama, Auburn, or Ole Miss. Not to mention 2007 Heisman Winner Tim Tebow will play his senior year for the Gators instead of entering the NFL Draft. Tebow has some help too – every defensive starter from last year has returned this year. It’s easy to like the Gators as a repeat pick, but there are a few other things to consider before crowning the champions this early.

First of all, and most surprising, the Gators have never had a perfect undefeated season. Look it up if you didn’t believe me - I couldn’t believe it myself. Florida went 5-0-1 in 1911, but they were not in a conference, it did not take place in the modern era, and they didn’t win the national title that year (Princeton did). Every national championship year has consisted of exactly one loss, including the 1997 team losing to their hated rival Seminoles, only to get revenge in the title game.

Speaking of Florida State, all three championship seasons featured a win over the Seminoles. And while the easy non-conference schedule guarantees at least three easy wins, and probably a fourth over FSU, a loss will hurt their chances at reappearing in the BCS title game.

To consider past champions, if you’re going to lose a game, do it early on; a late-season loss is a BCS rankings killer. At least if it happens early enough, other top teams will fall as well, and a chance arises to reclaim one of the top two spots. A prime example is last year’s Oklahoma team, losing to Texas in the Red River Shootout, and later annihilating Texas Tech late in the season to controversially win the Big 12 South title.

The biggest obstacle the Gators will face all year is avoiding trap games. Every year, a high-profile team takes a seemingly weaker opponent lightly, and after what Appalachian State did to the University of Michigan a few years ago, no win is a guarantee anymore. The September 19 matchup against the Tennessee Volunteers has such potential. After a season of mediocrity in 2008, Lane Kiffin has lit a fire under his team. And with his father, the great defensive mastermind Monty Kiffin on his staff, this team is going to be back to prominence soon. The fact that the game is in The Swamp makes it even more alluring. After all, the Wolverines dropped the ball in the Big House to App State, so home field isn’t a guarantee either. Other trap game possibilities are road games against Kentucky and South Carolina, and their former coach Steve Spurrier. The Gators are 3-1 against the Old Ball Coach since his return to the college game, and there’s no doubt he wants to beat them as many times as he can.

The last three seasons, and four out of the last six overall, the SEC champion has appeared in the BCS National Championship, and all four teams won. The SEC Championship game may be the toughest game of the year for the Gators, with all likelihood of a repeat of last year’s game against Alabama. If they can win that game, Florida is home free, and you can expect to see Tim Tebow hoisting the BCS trophy for a third time.

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