The NCAA is hitting Florida State with a few pretty big penalties relating to recruiting and NIL, according to the association’s release Thursday evening. In one of the first public reprimands of the new era in college football, a Seminoles assistant coach has been issued a three-game suspension and two-year show-cause penalty.
According to Yahoo, the assistant coach is offensive coordinator Alex Atkins.
All of this stems from an impermissible meeting between a transfer player and a booster associated with a Florida State collective. According to the release by the NCAA, a booster offered the player $15,000 per month if he attended FSU, which is an inducement to play according to NCAA rules.
One of the key issues at hand centers around Alex Atkins setting up the meeting with a booster, who at the time was the CEO of the NIL collective. During the process, the coach is said to have arranged the meeting, but did not attend, according to the parents of the player involved.
“During the meeting, the booster encouraged the prospect to enroll at Florida State and offered him an NIL opportunity with the collective worth approximately $15,000 per month during his first year at the school,” the NCAA stated. “After the meeting, the booster contacted the prospect and the prospect’s mother via text message and/or phone call.
“Shortly thereafter, the prospect withdrew his name from the Transfer Portal and remained at his previous school. The prospect did not enter into an agreement with the booster or receive any related compensation.”
The NCAA maintains that when the booster offered an NIL opportunity, that was a recruiting violation for an inducement to play.
According to the release, Florida State’s own enforcement staff and the assistant coach agreed that the he lied to investigators about the incident. The NCAA claims that the assistant coach denied setting up the meeting between the booster and player’s family. In a weird twist, the assistant coach was truthful to the investigators about transporting the prospective player to the meeting.
What Are The Penalties For Florida State?
After agreeing to the NCAA investigators claims, Florida State has now been put on a two-year probation. But it’s the assistant coach who will be suspended for three regular-season games, along with a two-year show-cause penalty.
The school must also disassociate itself with the booster for a period of three-years, while also staying away from the collective for a period of one year. Also, Florida State was hit with a reduction of five scholarships over a two-year period.
On the recruiting front, the Seminoles will also be docked seven official visits in the upcoming calendar year. The assistant coach was not allowed to recruit off-campus during the fall of 2023, which has obviously already been served.
This is the latest attempt of the NCAA to try to set some type of guardrails on a system that it purposely stayed low-key on for the last three years. Now, the NCAA felt it was the right time to punish a school for something that is happening all over college football.
The NCAA once again proves that it has no clue how to manage the current NIL structure, and found a school big enough to make a splash. The NCAA suspended an assistant coach for the same amount of games that Jim Harbaugh was suspended by the Big Ten conference for an incident that allegedly involved cheating the system when it comes to the integrity of the game.
Congratulations to the NCAA, it once again looks foolish.