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Notre Dame violated NCAA recruiting contact rules

Barry Werner
·2 min read

Some college football news from the NCAA about one of the biggest programs in the sport. Notre Dame was found to have violated recruiting rules.

The person in question is a former assistant coach who met with a recruit during an illegal period. Brian Kelly is also mentioned — not by name — in the release for a Level III violation.

Per the NCAA:

The university, former assistant football coach and NCAA enforcement staff agreed that the former assistant coach had impermissible contact with a prospect when he met privately with the prospect at his high school before July 1 after the completion of his junior year of high school. During that meeting, the former assistant coach expressed the school’s interest in recruiting the prospect. The former assistant football coach also had exchanged impermissible text messages with another prospect on 10 occasions.

The case also involved a Level III recruiting violation involving the head football coach. Specifically, after initially declining a request, the head football coach impermissibly posed for a photo with another prospect while visiting the prospect’s high school during the fall evaluation period.

As for the penalties:

The university and the enforcement staff used ranges identified by the Division I membership-approved infractions penalty guidelines to agree upon Level II-mitigated penalties for the university and Level II-mitigated penalties for the former assistant coach. The report contains the full list of penalties as approved by the Committee on Infractions, including:

  • One year of probation.

  • A $5,000 fine.

  • A six-month show-cause order for the former assistant football coach, including a one-game suspension at any employing member school.

  • Reduced football official visits for the 2020-21 academic year by one.

  • Reduced football unofficial visits by 14 days for the 2020-21 academic year.

  • A seven-day off-campus recruiting ban for the entire football staff during the 2020-21 academic year.

  • The university ended the recruitment of the prospect.

  • The university will not recruit any prospects from the high school in Seattle from the 2019-20 through 2021-22 academic years.