For Florida A&M, Getting on the Field Is Just One of Many Problems

“One of my fundamental challenges is to make sure that, first, we select the right people to begin with — people who have a commitment and an appreciation of the environment,” Robinson, when asked how he could create stability, said in an interview.

Among the more pressing matters is to raise the football team’s Academic Progress Rate — the N.C.A.A.’s academic report card — which is last this year among the 257 Division I schools that play football. Next year, penalties that had been paused early in the coronavirus pandemic will resume for schools whose scores fall below a minimum threshold, putting programs at risk of another postseason ban or new scholarship reductions.

Florida AM has been punished for letting ineligible athletes compete.

A clear sign of players’ discontent was visible late last month on a second-floor hallway of the Gaither Gym Complex, where athletes lined up at opposite ends outside two offices.

One line was for the department’s lone academic adviser for 300 athletes. The other was for a financial aid coordinator serving as interim compliance director — the only person in the athletic department tasked with making sure athletes meet N.C.A.A. eligibility requirements.

“It looked like guys hanging out, waiting to get into a club,” Simmons, the coach, said.

In 2019, an N.C.A.A. investigation found that Florida AM had allowed 93 athletes to play even though they were not eligible. It slapped the school, already on probation from a 2015 case, with an additional five years of probation, along with fines, scholarship reductions, recruiting restrictions and postseason bans for six sports, including football. The violations were termed Level 1-Aggravated, considered the most egregious.

There was, though, a bright spot in the report: The panel lauded the school for hiring an experienced compliance staff and shoring up its eligibility certification procedures. But at least four compliance officials — including all those mentioned in the report — are now gone.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/10/sports/ncaafootball/famu-football-scandal.html