Dan Mullen, Scott Stricklin release statements after NCAA announces penalties for Florida football program
The NCAA just hit Florida with probation and recruiting restrictions after Dan Mullen’s program had impermissible in-person contact on the recruiting trail. According to NCAA rules, this is defined as a Level II violation (the most severe violation is a Level I violation).
Following this investigation, the NCAA has ruled Mullen did not promote an atmosphere of compliance in light of his personal involvement in one of the violations.
The Gators received some relatively minor punishments as a result, however, the program has been put on probation and Mullen has received a one-year show-cause order. What that means is Mullen is prohibited from all off-campus recruiting activity during the fall 2020 evaluation period and a four-day off-campus recruiting ban during the fall 2021 contact period.
Immediately after this news, Florida issued the following statements:
Dan Mullen:
“As Head Football Coach of the Florida Gators, promoting an atmosphere of compliance within our program is important to me. Following the rules and being committed to doing things the right way is part of my history as a coach, at all levels, and I regret we didn’t do things the right way in this situation. Even though this is an isolated matter, I’m still disappointed in the violations outlined in the report. We’re going to learn from our mistakes and I’m confident this won’t happen again. Most importantly, we’ll keep working for the benefit of our student athletes to make our program one our fans and University can be proud of.”
Athletics Director Scott Stricklin:
“There is no evidence of systemic compliance issues at Florida, but when isolated circumstances occur they are addressed head on and we accept responsibility for our actions, as evidenced by this instance.
“NCAA rules are in place to create fairness and integrity, and the University of Florida has an established history of adhering to those rules. It is important for our coaches and staff to remain diligent and take responsibility for compliance, and extricate themselves from potential NCAA violations.”
University of Florida President Dr. Kent Fuchs:
“The University of Florida places a high value on integrity and we are committed to compliance. I’m confident that we have the right processes and people in place to deliver the highest standard of honesty and compliance.”
Here is the full list of penalties the Gators have been handed down by the NCAA:
- One year of probation.
- A $5,000 fine.
- Reduced fall 2019 evaluations from 42 to 21.
- Reduced football evaluation days by 12 for the 2018-19 academic year.
- Restrictions on all recruiting telephone calls with football prospects from April 15 through May 31, 2019.
- A reduction in the number of football official visits during the 2019-20 academic year by one and in the number of unofficial visits during the 2019-20 academic year by 14.
- A one-year show-cause order for the head football coach. During that period, the head coach is prohibited from all off-campus recruiting activity during the fall 2020 evaluation period and a four-day off-campus recruiting ban during the fall 2021 contact period.
- The university banned the head coach from recruiting for the first 10 days of the January 2020 contact period.
- A 30-day off-campus recruiting ban for the head coach during the fall 2019 evaluation period.
- 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 2020-21 academic years.
- A seven-day off-campus recruiting ban for the entire football coaching staff during the spring 2021 off-campus recruiting period.
- A 30-day off-campus recruiting ban for the assistant coach in October 2019 and a three-day off-campus recruiting ban for the January 2020 contact period.
- One-on-one rules education for both the head coach and assistant coach regarding NCAA contact and evaluation rules.
Say what?
Tell Stricklin to trade it all for a single year bowl ban with the option to serve it this year. It’d be like getting off scott free.
That’s not a bad idea. Players and coach would hate to miss out on the bowl game, but they really don’t have anything to gain from the game besides a fun trip.
Mullen is laughing is ass off and fist pumping right now. I can only imagine how may years of reduced scholarships would have been the penalty had it been Iowa State, Ole Miss, NC State, Mizzou ect.
Full blown academic fraud and impermissible contact with one individual are pretty different.
You’re no a kidding! UNC knew full-blown academic fraud was the way to go and not to cross the line with impermissible contact with one individual.
you dumb ass, Missouri dismissed every cheater from the University and erased their transcripts. Even the paid-by-the-cheaters vindictive tutor admitted she had no connections to anybody in the football program or past football program, booster etc.. There is not one shred of evidence to support the NCAA punishing Missouri University or Tiger Football. Look at the committee assigned, Lawyer from an Ivy league school just for starters, plus another notorious NCAA hatch assassin. The the NCAA turns around and throws amateurism out of college. With guardians like this, who needs exploiters.
That’s great.. Except the NCAA said Missouri would have never caught what was happening if the tutor didn’t come forward… That’s a compliance problem..
Ohh that’s bull and you know Like they play favorites You must be young right?
There’s enough youth in the world kiddo, go find the Fountain of Smart and take a big gulp.
If I tol’ ya oncet, I tol’ ya ten times. Now, look!
NCAA says “ya been bad”.. Mullen says “din do nuffin”.. well that should certainly settle it.
Man I’m confused with the dates, when did this happen? Most of the listed penalties are for 2019 and 2020, did these already occur and now we find out? WTF
Yeah, I was curious about a few of those too.
WTH are you confused about? Isn’t it obvious? Mullet has been cheating since shortly after he arrived in Gainesville, doesn’t take a phd to figure that one out…
I’d like to pile on my favorite human garbage pile but the logical in me recognizes that in the year of no contact covid recruiting there are going to be many more instances of violations across the country…I’ll simply hope Kirby has tried to keep clean…good luck Gator Nation, not a good look…
As one of my Green Beret friends used to say to me jokingly, “if you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’.”
Let he who is without minor recruiting violations cast the first shoe.
Can you believe how butthurt dog fans are
Thank you for the full-on belly laugh this morning; that’s outstanding!
I don’t think anyone believes that Mullen actually recruits. Just run into violations via ignorance.
Bummer. Hopefully, this lesson is learned by all.
Florida and Mullen covered all this up for over a year – on purpose. They should be banned from the Cotton Bowl for in effect lying by covering up.
You kinda have a point, even though you’re barking up the wrong tree. UF released a statement the same day the NCAA released their statement. What seems odd is why the NCAA waited until now. And whats better is that none of the crack journalists cracked the investigation until after the penalties were almost all served.
“What? We were on double secret probation? How can that be?”
Florida, the Delta boys say hello.
Apparently Mullen did not promote an atmosphere of compliance by allowing 127 non-football high school students to tour the athletic facilities.
And on top of that atrocity, he apparently spoke to a sophomore or junior during a high school visit to a high school in Seattle, Washington.
Ad finally, it appears that the dates are not typos. Apparently Florida was already on super secret extra special probation for these egregious violations.
How are we going to pay the $5,000 fine?
What are we going to do now that we cannot recruit one high school in Seattle, Washington for a year?
We are doomed !
Nash, evidently one of the horrible violations would now be legal, as they have changed the rule. The show cause penalty seems like overkill for level 2 and 3 violations though. Although I guess that’s over now too.
LOL