GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida men’s football program has been handed a one-year probation, a fine and other penalties for violating NCAA recruiting rules.
The sanctions come after the NCAA says the program violated recruiting contact rules twice, and Head Coach Dan Mullen "did not promote an atmosphere of compliance." Mullen has been handed a year-long show-cause penalty, which limits his involvement in recruiting.
NCAA investigators say Mullen had "impermissible in-person contact" when he expressed interest in recruiting a prospect while meeting the prospect's high school coach during a time when the student was also in the room.
"Leading up to that visit, the head coach sent the prospect texts about his upcoming visit to the high school and his interest in recruiting the prospect," NCAA wrote in a statement. "NCAA rules were violated because off-campus recruiting contacts are not allowed until after a football prospect’s junior year of high school."
In a statement, Mullen said promoting an atmosphere of compliance is important to him, and he regrets that rules were not followed in this situation.
"Even though this is an isolated matter, I'm still disappointed in the violations outlined in the report. We're going to learn from our mistakes and I'm confident this won't happen again," Mullen said. "Most importantly, we'll keep working for the benefit of our student athletes to make our program one our fans and University can be proud of."
The NCAA says other members of the UF coaching staff also had impermissible contact with roughly 127 prospects when seven nonscholastic football teams unofficially visited the university's campus and toured the football facilities on their way to a 7-on-7 tournament in Tampa.
"While today this is allowed under NCAA rules, at the time this occurred it was not permitted," UF Athletic Director Scott Stricklin wrote in a statement.
Stricklin said the Florida Gators have been cooperating with the NCAA for more than a year in an effort to address the concerns.
"Part of having integrity is accepting responsibility and consequences when we make mistakes,'' Stricklin wrote.
The NCAA negotiated penalties with the coaches involved. Below is a list of the agreed on penalties, as described by the NCAA:
- One year of probation.
- A $5,000 fine.
- Reduced fall 2019 evaluations from 42 to 21.
- Reduced football evaluation days by 12 for the 2018-19 academic year.
- Restrictions on all recruiting telephone calls with football prospects from April 15 through May 31, 2019.
- A reduction in the number of football official visits during the 2019-20 academic year by one and in the number of unofficial visits during the 2019-20 academic year by 14.
- A one-year show-cause order for the head football coach. During that period, the head coach is prohibited from all off-campus recruiting activity during the fall 2020 evaluation period and a four-day off-campus recruiting ban during the fall 2021 contact period.
- The university banned the head coach from recruiting for the first 10 days of the January 2020 contact period.
- A 30-day off-campus recruiting ban for the head coach during the fall 2019 evaluation period.
- 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 2020-21 academic years.
- A seven-day off-campus recruiting ban for the entire football coaching staff during the spring 2021 off-campus recruiting period.
- A 30-day off-campus recruiting ban for the assistant coach in October 2019 and a three-day off-campus recruiting ban for the January 2020 contact period.
- One-on-one rules education for both the head coach and assistant coach regarding NCAA contact and evaluation rules.
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