Kadyn Proctor committing to the Iowa Hawkeyes via the transfer portal after leaving the Alabama Crimson Tide made waves across the college football landscape. With such a high-profile move comes a little extra scrutiny on the process.
Part of that process involved a text message sent to Proctor from Iowa’s director of recruiting Tyler Barnes during the 2023 college football season in September. Under NCAA guidelines, this could be tampering and Iowa is self-reporting this violation.
John Steppe of The Gazette reported the news from Beth Goetz, Iowa’s new athletics director.
AD Beth Goetz says the #Hawkeyes will self-report a tampering violation to the NCAA related to OL Kadyn Proctor.
Tyler Barnes sent Proctor what Goetz described as an “innocuous” text message of encouragement in September. Expected to be a Level III violation (least severe level)
— John Steppe (@JSteppe1) February 1, 2024
The expected punishment is a Level III violation, which is the least severe level of NCAA violations.
The text was in support of Proctor when it was sent to him last year. Scott Dochterman of The Athletic reported that the text told Proctor to “hang in there” despite some early freshman struggles in his first collegiate season.
Iowa is in the process of self-reporting a Level III violation with regard to impermissible contact with Kadyn Proctor. It’s in regard to a text sent to Proctor, then at Alabama, last September after tough game in which an Iowa staffer wrote “hang in there, buddy” to Proctor.…
— Scott Dochterman (@ScottDochterman) February 1, 2024
“It’s impermissible because it’s still considered tampering. But there’s nothing untoward in the writing of the text message,” Goetz told The Gazette and The Athletic.
Goetz said Iowa has not formally reported the violation yet as it continues to gather necessary information beforehand. She anticipates that the NCAA enforcement will be along the lines of education and “don’t do it again.”
“It doesn’t lessen the fact that we need to be responsible for what the rules are. Any time we make a mistake, we’re going to hold ourselves accountable and take appropriate actions to ensure we don’t find ourselves back in that same position again,” Goetz said.
After committing to Iowa, Proctor discussed why he chose the Hawkeyes at Iowa men’s basketball’s showdown inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena versus No. 2 Purdue on Jan. 20.
“No bridges were burned,” Proctor said then per Hawk Central. “That’s why it was so easy for me to pick them when I did enter the transfer portal because I had those relationships. Even when I was doing bad in the SEC, they hit me up and said, ‘We’re proud of you.'”
Iowa will await the NCAA fallout after it officially reports the Level III violation.
The 6-foot-7, 360 pound offensive tackle started all 14 games for the Crimson Tide at left tackle as Alabama won the SEC championship over Georgia and advanced to the College Football Playoff.
Per 247Sports, Proctor is a five-star transfer, the nation’s No. 2 transfer and the top offensive tackle. Rivals ranks Proctor as a five-star transfer and as the No. 4 talent in the portal, while On3 rates Proctor as the No. 5 transfer.
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