The University of Southern California’s football program has been placed on one year’s probation and fined $50,000 for multiple violations of NCAA coaching staff rules, the National Collegiate Athletics Association announced Tuesday.
The university and NCAA enforcement staff reached an agreement that the USC football program exceeded the allowable number of coaches over two academic years and that head coach Lincoln Riley violated head coach responsibility rules, according to an agreement released by the Division I Committee on Infractions NCAA.
USC responded to the announcement on Tuesday with a statement saying the school has been cooperating with the NCAA.
“Since USC became aware of potential violations involving our football program in May 2023, USC has cooperated with NCAA enforcement staff and the Commission on Violations, identifying and acknowledging violations, issuing corrective actions, and issuing timely negotiated resolution. fashion that has been approved by the committee,” USC Director of Athletics Jen Cohen said in a statement. “We remain committed to maintaining the highest standards of ethical conduct and integrity in our athletics programs.”
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It was agreed that the violations occurred when eight analysts from the school’s football program were involved in on- and off-field coaching activities in the spring 2023, fall 2022 and spring 2022 — exceeding the allowable number of coaches by six for the period of 2023. two academic years.
“Head coaches are supposed to be responsible for the actions of their staff, and as a result, Riley violated the rules governing head coach responsibility,” read the NCAA statement released Tuesday. “However, in this case, some violations occurred before the rules went into effect in January 2023 and the rules for head coach responsibility shifted from a rebuttable presumption to automatic seizure.”
The NCAA says certain circumstances surrounding the violations led to the decision not to suspend Riley as head coach.
“Because Riley was not personally involved in the violations and demonstrated that he promoted an atmosphere of compliance and supervised his staff, Riley disproved his alleged responsibility for the violations that occurred before the rules changed,” the NCAA statement continues. “For the same reasons, the parties also agreed that a suspension sentence for Riley was not appropriate.”
USC and NCAA enforcement staff also reached an agreement that the school would investigate the violations “immediately” after being notified and work with the organization’s enforcement staff to resolve them, according to the NCAA statement, stating that the school also “suitably trained and monitored the football matches. program.”
It also states that the analysts involved were aware of the rules “but occasionally showed errors in judgment.”
In addition to the probation and $50,000 fine, the NCAA said its violations committee also approved the following penalties: A restriction that prohibits the remaining analysts from practicing and reviewing film for six consecutive days over the course of four weeks in the upcoming season , a restriction excluding the special teams analyst from practice and film review for six consecutive days during the season and a 24-hour reduction in countable athletic-related activities for the football program during the season.
