FSU football penalized by NCAA for NIL violations

Dan Murphy, ESPN Staff WriterJan 11, 2024, 08:26 PM ET
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The NCAA on Thursday announced significant penalties for the Florida State football team — including two years’ probation and disassociating with its NIL collective for one season — for violating rules on using name, image and likeness offers as a recruiting inducement.

In addition, an FSU assistant coach, which sources confirmed to ESPN as offensive coordinator Alex Atkins, was suspended three games for his involvement. The university also must disassociate with a specific booster for three years.

Those penalties mark the first time the NCAA has severed the relationship between a school and its NIL collective as part of an infractions case. It also is the first time the NCAA has punished a school, coach or collective for using NIL as an inducement.

The NCAA didn’t identify Atkins by name, but it said that the assistant coach drove a prospect to a meeting with the head of the program’s most prominent NIL collective during the prospect’s official visit to campus. At the meeting, the booster offered the prospect $15,000 per month and encouraged him to play for the Seminoles.

The prospect, who was not named by the NCAA but was reported by The Associated Press to be Georgia offensive tackle Amarius Mims, removed his name from the transfer portal shortly after the meeting and remained at his previous school.

Investigators didn’t find that head coach Mike Norvell had committed any violations.

Yahoo Sports, who first identified Atkins, also reported that the booster involved was one of the leaders of Florida State’s Rising Spear collective.

NCAA rules prohibit boosters from using the promise of NIL deals as an incentive to try to convince a prospect to attend or transfer to a particular school.

Other penalties that Florida State agreed to include two years’ probation, the loss of five scholarships over two years, a $5,000 fine and several recruiting restrictions that include losing seven official visits, a six-week reduction in recruiting communications time and 24 fewer in-person recruiting days during the current academic year.

The penalties are considered Level II violations by the NCAA, which are major infractions but not as serious as Level I violations.

“We are pleased to reach closure to this situation and view this as another step in strengthening our culture of compliance at Florida State University,” FSU athletic director Michael Alford said in a statement. “We take all compliance matters very seriously, and our full cooperation with the NCAA on this case is a clear example of that commitment. We remain committed to compliance with all NCAA rules including disassociation of the booster and the collective.”