Florida State announced yesterday it will vacate 12 football victories and a 2007 men's track national championship in an academic cheating scandal, along with dozens more victories and placings across 10 men's and women's sports.

The NCAA stripped the school of wins in which 61 athletes implicated in the scandal contributed. The college sports governing body upheld the decision last month after Florida State appealed the sanctions as "excessive."

The scandal involved athletes cheating on an online test in a music history course from the fall of 2006 through summer 2007, or receiving improper help from staffers who provided them with answers to the exam and typed papers for them.

The men's basketball team lost all 22 wins from 2006-07, and women's basketball lost 16 victories that year, including two in the NCAA tournament.

Bobby Bowden, who retired after this season as the second all-time winningest coach in major college football behind Penn State's Joe Paterno, now has 389 victories.

Florida State was allowed to keep placings in sports like track, cross country, golf and swimming if they still had enough points to win after subtracting contributions from the implicated athletes.

Among the other victories vacated:

• Softball: 32 from 2006-07, including two from the ACC tournament.

• Baseball: 4 from 2006-07, including one NCAA tournament win.

• Women's basketball: 6 from 2007-08.

• Men's indoor track and field: dropped from 2nd to 4th at NCAA championship.

WINTER GAMES

VANCOUVER NEEDS MORE SNOW

As Olympians arrive by the day in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Winter Games seem to be missing something. Namely, winter.

Vancouver Olympic officials have touted these as "The Green Games." Some Vancouverites are now referring to them as "The Brown Games," given the muddy conditions at Cypress Mountain.

"When I got off the airplane it was like, 'What's this green grass doing here? This is the Winter Olympics,"' U.S. speedskater Trevor Marsicano said yesterday.

Trouble is, with opening ceremonies only five days away, the above-freezing temperatures in Vancouver — it got above 50 on Saturday — continue to raise concerns for other sports, particularly snowboarding and freestyle skiing, two events being held on the mountain.

The biggest test comes today, when freestyle moguls training sessions are scheduled to begin. Those sessions will provide the first onsite test after organizers spent much of the past few weeks hauling in snow by helicopter and by truck.

ELSEWHERE

Auto racing: Danica Patrick is expected to announce today if she will enter the Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway in Florida.

JR Motorsports has said it will be up to Patrick to decide if she wants to make her NASCAR debut in the Feb. 13 second-tier series race at Daytona.

Patrick finished sixth in Saturday's ARCA race at Daytona.