Enough of the hand-wringing about the possibility that Florida State University football coach Bobby Bowden may lose seven wins off of his record because of FSU’s academic scandal in 2007. If Bowden, 79, gets docked – and FSU is appealing – his career wins total will drop from 382 – or one behind Penn State’s Joe Paterno – to 375.
In reality, Bowden, shouldn’t even be within eight of Paterno, 82. All of Paterno’s wins have come against major collegiate competition. Bowden has 31 grandfathered wins against small schools. For example, Paterno’s first (PSU) win was against Maryland. Bowden (while at Howard, now Samford) started with a victory over Maryville.
Bowden gets to count Millsaps as if it were Michigan. In truth, if the FSU appeal is turned down, he should consider himself fortunate to be within eight of Paterno, not unlucky to lose seven because his program got caught cheating.