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It turns out Alabama State, which had its five-year probation for, among other things, academic fraud reduced to three on appeal, is serving as one of several lynchpins in Florida State's rebuttal to the NCAA Committee on Infractions' decision to uphold their vacating-of-wins penalty. According to the Tallahassee Democrat, FSU today officially issued their response to the Infraction Appeals Committee, arguing in part that the precedent set by the Alabama State decision, when coupled with their own self-reporting and self-corrective actions in the case, should lead to the victories that have been taken away being returned.

NBC Sports

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LB Kendall Moore (6-3 231) of Raleigh, NC has cut his list from seven, to five, and now to a final three of USC, NC State and Notre Dame, and he plans to announce his choice July 11th. He visited Notre Dame last weekend and doesn't have any other visits planned before his announcement.

Palmetto Sports

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Mick Cronin already overcame pretty long odds to get Lance Stephenson to commit to Cincinnati, but that doesn't mean the challenges are over. The former Lincoln standout, who signed a financial aid package with the Big East school on Tuesday, still needs to be admitted, get cleared by the NCAA -- which might look into his participation in a documentary -- and go through a misdemeanor sexual assault trial scheduled to begin on July 15. "We've done all our due diligence on the legal issue," Cronin, the Cincinnati coach, said during a conference call yesterday. "Obviously, we felt confident it's going to be resolved. With his amateur status, to my knowledge, we have no issues. We obviously think he's going to be cleared to play or we wouldn't have recruited him."

New York Post

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The rumor about a UGA-Michigan home-and-home series in 2010-2011 published online by the Michigan Daily, the student-run newspaper in Ann Arbor, appears to be mostly wishful thinking on the part of folks in maize and blue. As much as we???d love to see the Dogs revisit the scene of their historic 1965 upset of the Wolverines, there are some major and perhaps insurmountable obstacles in the way of such a deal, at least for next year and 2011.

Atlanta Journal Constitution

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One day after picking up a verbal commitment from running back Dom Timbers, of Woodland Hills High School in Pittsburgh, Syracuse University nabbed two more recruits. Steven Rene, a running back/defensive back/athlete from Canarsie High School in Brooklyn, and Ross Krautman, a kicker out of Ramapo High School in New Jersey, gave their verbal commitments to play for the Orange on Wednesday. Rene, 5-foot-8 and 170 pounds, picked SU over offers from Temple, Rutgers, Boston College, Oregon and Hofstra. Pittsburgh and UConn were also recruiting him. Rene said SU recruited him as an athlete and kick returner.

Syracuse.com

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