NCAA Says Notre Dame Football Violated Recruiting Contact Rules

The Notre Dame football program has violated NCAA recruiting contact rules and penalties have been issued.

The press release from the NCAA says that the former assistant coach for Notre Dame football had "impermissible contact" with a prospective student athlete when the assistant coach met with the student privately at his high school. The meeting allegedly took place after the student completed his junior year of high school but before July 1, 2020. The NCAA says that same assistant coach had also exchanged text messages on ten separate occasions with another prospective student athlete.

An agreement was released by the Division I Committee on Infractions and the case also involves an infraction by the head coach of the Notre Dame football program as well. That violation involved posing for a photo with a prospective student athlete at his high school, a "Level III recruiting violation," according to the NCAA press release.

The penalties for the violations include:

• One year of probation.
• A $5,000 fine.
• A six-month show-cause order for the former assistant football coach, including a one-game suspension at any employing member school.
• Reduced football official visits for the 2020-21 academic year by one.
• Reduced football unofficial visits by 14 days for the 2020-21 academic year.
• A seven-day off-campus recruiting ban for the entire football staff during the 2020-21 academic year.
• 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 2021-22 academic years.

The release does go on to say that if the penalties detailed above cannot be served due to Covid-19 that those penalties must still be served at a later time when it is safe to do so.