TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida State received four years' probation from the NCAA on Friday and will lose scholarships in football and forfeit games because of an academic cheating scandal.

The NCAA infractions committee called the case "extremely serious" because of the large number of student-athletes involved in various men and women's sports, citing unethical conduct by three former staff members and a failure to monitor by the university. Academic fraud is considered among the most egregious of NCAA rules violations.

The report says 61 Florida State athletes from all sports cheated on an online test from the fall of 2006 through summer 2007 or received improper help from staffers who provided them with answers to the exam and typed papers for them.

The cheating occurred mainly through online testing for a single music history course in the fall of 2006 and the spring and summer semesters of 2007. It included staffers helping students on the test and, in one case, asking one athlete to take it for another.

Florida State played in the 2007 Music City Bowl without two dozen players, including several starters. The Seminoles were defeated by Kentucky.

Many of the same athletes were held out of the first three games last fall as part of their punishment.

Florida State officials conducted the investigation with assistance from the NCAA, Atlantic Coast Conference and a consulting firm. That report was sent to the NCAA, which then conducted its own investigation.