The Florida football program and its head coach Dan Mullen were clocked by the NCAA on Tuesday.
Per the NCAA:
The Florida football program violated NCAA recruiting contact rules on two occasions, and the head coach did not promote an atmosphere of compliance, according to an agreement released by the Division I Committee on Infractions.
The university, the head football coach, an assistant coach and NCAA enforcement staff agreed that the assistant coach and head coach had impermissible in-person contact with a prospect when they met with a prospect’s high school coach while the prospect was in the room. At that meeting, the Florida coaches expressed an interest in recruiting the prospect. 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 rules were violated because off-campus recruiting contacts are not allowed until after a football prospect’s junior year of high school. The violations were Level II.
,,, The head coach agreed that he did not promote an atmosphere of compliance in light of his personal involvement in one of the violations.
The Gators’ football program has been placed on probation for a year and Mullen received a one-year show-cause penalty for violating recruiting rules and a $5,000 fine.
“As Head Football Coach of the Florida Gators, promoting an atmosphere of compliance within our program is important to me,” Mullen said in a statement. “Following the rules and being committed to doing things the right way is part of my history as a coach, at all levels, and I regret we didn’t do things the right way in this situation.
Florida staff members also had impermissible contact with approximately 127 prospects when seven 7-on-7 teams visited campus and toured the football facilities before a tournament in Tampa. The assistant coach had incidental impermissible contacts with several prospects, deemed Level III violations.
The full list of penalties approved by the Committee on Infractions includes:
• 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.
Said athletic director Scott Stricklin, “There is no evidence of systemic compliance issues at Florida, but when isolated circumstances occur they are addressed head on and we accept responsibility for our actions, as evidenced by this instance. NCAA rules are in place to create fairness and integrity, and the University of Florida has an established history of adhering to those rules. It is important for our coaches and staff to remain diligent and take responsibility for compliance, and extricate themselves from potential NCAA violations.”