NCAA penalizing FSU for NIL-related recruiting violations
The NCAA is levying a list of penalties against Florida State for NIL-related recruiting violations, the association announced Thursday.
The sanctions were negotiated by Florida State and the NCAA and thus can't be appealed.
The violations occurred during a recruiting event and involved an assistant coach, the NIL collective Rising Spear, and an unnamed booster.
The assistant coach is offensive coordinator Alex Atkins, according to Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger. He faces multiple penalties after the association found he committed a pair of Level II violations, including impermissible recruiting activity and facilitating impermissible contact with an NIL-related booster.
Atkins will be suspended for the first three games of the 2024 season and will be given a two-year show-cause restriction. The latter would require any team that hires Atkins to present rationale for doing so to the NCAA. He is also barred from participating in off-campus recruiting events in the fall.
Atkins is expected to remain with the Seminoles in his current capacity, per Dellenger.
Florida State will also be required to disassociate from the NIL collective representative and the whole NIL collective for three years. The school will be barred from accepting assistance or financial donations to the overall athletic department, but the collective will still be eligible to help individual student-athletes pursue NIL opportunities, per Dellenger.
The school will also face the following penalties:
- Two years of probation
- Five fewer scholarships for the next two years
- Seven fewer official visits for 2023-4
- Six weeks of recruiting communication prohibition over the next two academic years
- Six fewer evaluation days in the fall
- 18 fewer evaluation days in the spring
- A financial penalty equal to $5,000 plus 1% of the athletic department's budget
One of the six weeks with a recruiting communication prohibition is from Jan. 12-18, according to Dellenger.
The school must also disassociate from the booster that was involved for the next three years.