The trouble didn’t happen on Deion Sanders’ watch but he’s going to have to deal with it. The NCAA announced on Friday that the Jackson State football team has been placed on two years probation.
Jackson State violated NCAA certification and recruiting rules, according to an agreement released by the Division I Committee on Infractions.
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Both parties agreed that under previous regimes, 34 student athletes were allowed to practice and compete before receiving certification from the NCAA Eligibility Center. JSU agreed it failed to monitor its certification process.
Another issue arose from a former football staffer provided $300 to the godmother of a football prospect. The staffer also arranged for tutoring to assist the prospect, a transfer, in completing courses for eligibility, which was a violation.
Negotiated Resolution
Jackson State, the former staffer and the NCAA agreed on the violations. That agreement allowed the case to be processed as a negotiated resolution. That means the penalties in this case can not be appealed.
The games featuring the players that were not yet certified must be vacated by JSU. The University has 14 days to inform the NCAA which games were impacted. Moving forward recruiting will suffer some adversity for Deion Sanders and his Jackson State staff. Below is the full list of penalties levied against Jackson State.
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- Two years of probation.
- A fine of $5,000.
- A 2% reduction in baseball scholarship equivalencies from the annual limit of 11.7 equivalencies during the 2021-22 academic year and a 2.5% reduction in football scholarship equivalencies from the annual limit of 63 equivalencies during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 academic years.
- The football program must serve a one-week ban on unofficial visits in each of January, February, March and April 2021.
- A reduction of four football official paid visits during the 2021-22 academic year.
- The football program must serve a one-week ban of all recruiting communication contacts and off-campus recruiting by the entire football staff with any prospects, including transfers, in each of May and June 2021.
- A vacation of records of contests in which student-athletes participated while ineligible. The university must provide a written report containing the contests impacted to the NCAA media coordination and statistics staff within 14 days of the public release of the decision.