Southern Utah University was hit with sanctions on Wednesday morning after the NCAA found its football program guilty of tampering. Meanwhile, these kinds of behavior are rampant within college football and absolutely happening.
It is truly mind-boggling how the NCAA chooses to handle its business.
Two prominent FBS coaches spoke publicly about tampering issues within the last 30 days.
Spencer Danielson said that he literally calls other head coach individually to tell them to stop messing with the Boise State roster. Matt Rhule claimed that Nebraska’s four-star tight end is a prime target for other schools who want him to transfer. They are just two of countless examples over the last few years.Tampering is rampant in the current era of college athletics. Programs are constantly trying to recruit players at other schools to leave their current team and transfer. NIL money is often involved.
More lucrative programs are able to call athletes with the promise of more money. That is rather difficult to turn down if you’re an 18/20-year-old who has the opportunity to see the field in a greater capacity at the school that is going to pay you more.
Although this is not a new concept, tampering has increased infinitely over the last decade or so. It is happening all over the country on all levels. It is not particularly hard to point out either.
And yet, the NCAA turns a blind eye to most of it. The governing body of college sports, which is largely powerless at this point, consistently fails to do anything of value.
Southern Utah got hammered.
As major FBS programs continue to tamper on all levels, the NCAA decided to go after a team that won only seven games on the FCS level last year. It hit Southern Utah with violations that are not insignificant!
The punishment stems from two agreed upon instances of tampering. They both involved Thunderbirds head coach DeLane Fitzgerald.
The school, Fitzgerald and the enforcement staff agreed that the violations in this case occurred when Fitzgerald impermissibly tampered with two student-athletes who were enrolled at other schools before they had entered the Transfer Portal. The first violation occurred when Fitzgerald participated in a 17-minute phone call with a student-athlete. Four days later that student-athlete entered the Transfer Portal and ultimately enrolled at Southern Utah. Another violation occurred when Fitzgerald sent two text messages to another student-athlete requesting game film. That student-athlete indicated that he was not interested in transferring and had not entered the Transfer Portal.
— NCAA
Southern Utah was charged with multiple Level II violations. Penalties include:
- One year of probation.
- A $5,000 fine.
- A two-week prohibition on all recruiting activities for the football program during a permissible recruiting period in 2024. One week (seven consecutive days) took place April 15-21 during the spring transfer window for football.
- A suspension from one regular-season game during the 2023 football season for Fitzgerald.
- A two-year show-cause order for Fitzgerald. During the show-cause order, any employing member school shall impose a two-week off-campus recruiting ban for Fitzgerald, including one week during the spring transfer window. Fitzgerald will also be suspended from all recruiting communications for one week during the 2025 transfer window.
All of this is for a team that didn’t even make the FCS Playoffs…
Meanwhile, there are Power Five schools getting away with much worse. The NCAA never ceases to amaze!
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