The NCAA is taking action against a major college football program for violating recruiting rules related to NIL.
The organization announced Thursday that Florida State would be hit with penalties after a Seminoles assistant coach facilitated impermissible contact between a prospective transfer and a booster.
During an official visit in 2022 with a player in the transfer portal, the assistant coach transported the player to an off-campus meeting where the booster offered NIL money to him as an inducement to attend FSU. Per the NCAA's release, this included a $15,000 per month deal with one of Florida State's NIL collectives.
Boosters are not authorized recruiters and are not allowed to engage in in-person, off-campus contact with prospects, triggering the violation.
The prospect ultimately withdrew his name from the transfer portal and stayed at his previous school, rejecting the offer from the Seminoles' collective. Per 247Sports’ Brendan Sonnone, the player being recruited was Georgia offensive tackle Amarius Mims (who ended up staying with the Bulldogs), while Florida State offensive line coach Alex Atkins was the assistant who facilitated the impermissible contact.
Florida State's football program was tagged with Level II standard penalties and Atkins was given Level II aggravated penalties for the infraction by the NCAA's Division I Committee on Infractions panel.
The sanctions include two years of probation, a three-game suspension for Atkins, a three-year disassociation from the booster and a one-year disassociation from the NIL collective that the booster represented.
The full list of penalties for Florida State levied by the NCAA:
- Two years of probation.
- A two-year show cause order for the assistant coach, including a suspension from the next three regular-season games, a two-week restriction on recruiting communication, and required attendance at an NCAA Regional Rules Seminar attendance.
- A restriction from off-campus recruiting during fall 2023 for the assistant coach.
- A three-year disassociation from the booster.
- A one-year disassociation from the collective.
- A $5,000 fine plus 1% of the football budget.
- A 5% reduction in football scholarships over the two-year probationary period, amounting to a total reduction of five scholarships.
- A reduction in official (paid) visits in the football program in the 2023-24 academic year by seven. The school also will not roll over six unused official visits from the 2022-23 academic year.
- A reduction in football recruiting communications for a total of six weeks during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years.
- A reduction in the number of in-person recruiting days during the 2023-24 academic year by six evaluation days during fall 2023 and 18 during spring 2024.
