Spetman, 55, replaces interim athletic director Bill Proctor, who took over several weeks ago after the school bought out the final 13 months of Dave Hart Jr.'s contract. Hart left in December.
Spetman agreed to a 5-year contract with Florida State. The deal was still being completed and a salary was not immediately announced. Spetman then headed back to Logan, Utah, to formally resign later Monday. He said he hoped to be on the job at Florida State by the middle of next week.
Some significant issues are awaiting him at Florida State, which has been bogged down for months with an academic cheating scandal.
The school's major athletic programs football, basketball and baseball also have slumped in recent years while only its track and women's soccer programs have flourished. The cheating scandal affects several sports and will keep up to a dozen key players out of Florida State's first three football games in September.
The Seminoles won a pair of national football championships in the 1990s, but have fallen out of their dominating position in the Atlantic Coast Conference in recent years as coach Bobby Bowden winds down his long and successful career at the school.
``My goal is to continue to build on this storied tradition and to make sure that we serve this university well,'' Spetman said.
``Serving with the likes of legendary coach Bowden and the many other great coaches here, we will continue to compete for national championships,'' Spetman said. ``And we will see that our student athletes graduate with a meaningful degree.''
President T.K. Wetherell said the university is finishing its report to the NCAA on the cheating in a music history course nearly a year ago. Its disclosure has resulted in a realignment of the athletic department and the academic advisory arm of the program.
``It was a bump in the road, but we all seem to, at different institutions, have that from time to time,'' said Spetman, who praised the school's handling of the situation.
Spetman inherits a department in near disarray after the departures of Hart and several of his top assistants in recent months that has created several openings.
``He'll just need to build his team,'' Wetherell said about Spetman's immediate challenges.
Other finalists included two Florida State alums former star cornerback Martin Mayhew, who is senior vice president of the NFL's Detroit Lions, and Wayne Hogan, who served briefly as interim athletic director before Hart's selection.
But Wetherell said Spetman was the right man for the job now.
``Everywhere he's left, somebody said we're better for his passing through,'' Wetherell said. ``I don't think anybody has been more excited to come to Florida State University since I got the (president's) job.''
A native of Council Bluffs, Iowa, Spetman won three letters in football at the Air Force Academy where he was captain of the team in 1976. He later returned to his alma mater as its athletic director from 1996-2003 before taking his present position at Utah State.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2008/2/206532