Bad news for Jimbo Fisher’s Texas A&M program on Thursday as the NCAA has announced the Aggie football program and its head coach violated NCAA recruiting rules.

The NCAA’s investigation into Texas A&M football took place between January 2018 and February 2019. The key finding following that investigation? Fisher himself was involved in actively breaking NCAA recruiting rules.

According to the investigation, Fisher and an unnamed assistant coach had impermissible contact with a recruit during this time. Video footage was obtained proving the impermissible contact did in fact occur. The NCAA charged Fisher for failing to “promote an atmosphere of compliance because of his personal involvement in the recruiting violation.”

This impermissible contact occurred in January of 2019 and involved a 2020 high school prospect.

Fisher was also found to have failed to monitor his staff when he did not ensure the program was staying within the allowable number of countable athletically related activity hours.

In that instance, extra practice time was provided to the Aggies during the spring and summer of 2018.

The recruiting violation committed by Texas A&M is considered a Level II violation while the practice violation is considered a Level III violation. Level I are the most severe violations a program can commit and come with the harshest punishment.

Texas A&M will be on probation from July 2, 2020, through July 1, 2021, following this news.

The NCAA outlined the following penalties for Texas A&M:

  • One year of probation.
  • A fine of $5,000.
  • A reduction in football official visits by 17 days during the 2019-20 academic year.
  • An off-campus recruiting ban for the entire football coaching staff for November 2019, which reduced the permissible evaluation days for the 2019-20 academic year by 19.
  • A seven-day off-campus recruiting ban for the football coaching staff for the 2020 spring off-campus recruiting period and a 10-day off-campus recruiting ban for the football coaching staff for the 2020 fall off-campus recruiting period.
  • The university ended its recruitment of the prospect.
  • A ban on recruiting any prospects from the prospect’s high school for the 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years.
  • A six-month show-cause order for the head coach. The terms of the show-cause order include a previously served nine-day ban on phone calls, emails or texts with prospects in January 2020; a reduction in off-campus recruiting contact days by three for the December 2019 through January 2020 contact period; a ban on all off-campus recruiting activities for the fall 2020 contact period; additional one-on-one rules education; and a public statement from the head coach addressing the violations.
  • A six-month show-cause order for the assistant coach. The terms of the show-cause order include a previously served nine-day ban on phone calls, emails or texts with prospects in January 2020; a reduction in off-campus recruiting contact days by three for the December 2019 through January 2020 contact period; a ban on all off-campus recruiting activities for the fall 2020 contact period; and additional one-on-one rules education.