Florida State investigated academic favoritism during '13 season

Florida State investigated academic favoritism allegations involving several prominent players during its 2013 championship season, according to a report from Mike McIntire of the New York Times.

The misconduct in question stemmed from an online hospitality course. The instructor, Christina Suggs, filed a complaint after allegedly being pressured by professor Mark Bonn, who was in charge of the hospitality courses, to keep certain players academically eligible.

Football standouts James Wilder Jr., Kelvin Benjamin, Timmy Jernigan, Tre' Jackson, Nick Waisome, and Chris Casher were among those who reportedly got away with plagiarism. Copies of their projects obtained by the New York Times show their work was plagiarized word-for-word from online resources without quotation marks or citations. Jackson, Jernigan, and Waisome, in particular, appear to have plagiarized from Wikipedia in one of their projects.

Additionally, some players enrolled in the course were allegedly allowed to make up missed assignments and resubmit portions of their final project so they could remain academically eligible.

The Seminoles kept winning on the field, and as the team went on its championship run, the university informed Suggs she wouldn't be retained. She believes she lost her job "due to this unfortunate circumstance with Dr. Bonn and the investigation into the football players."

Florida State said in a statement it hired an outside consultant to investigate the allegations, but no wrongdoing was found. The university did tighten standards for online courses following the review, but insists the changes weren't related to Suggs' complaint.

Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher isn't mentioned once in the report.