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LSU lands one-year probation, plaudits from NCAA

The bad news for the LSU football program is that they have been found to have committed major violations in the recruitment of former Tiger defensive lineman Akiem Hicks and received penalties above what they had self-imposed.

The good news? A proactive compliance department likely kept the sanctions to a relative bare minimum.

As expected, the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions released its report into the LSU football program and found the school and/or a former assistant coach and/or non-coaching staff members had committed five major violations, all related to Hicks’ recruitment in 2008 and 2009. Hicks is referred to in the COI’s report as “recruiting prospect 1":

1. IMPERMISSIBLE TRANSPORTATION. [NCAA Bylaws 13.5.1 and 13.5.3]
During the period from April through August 2009, while recruiting prospect 1, the institution provided prospect 1 impermissible automobile transportation.

2. IMPERMISSIBLE LODGING. [NCAA Bylaw 13.2.1.1-(h)]
During the period April 14-16, 2009, while prospect 1 was on an unofficial visit to the institution, student worker 2 provided him two nights’ lodging at her apartment at no cost.

3. IMPERMISSIBLE PHONE CALLS. [NCAA Bylaws 13.1.3.1.2, 13.1.3.1.7 and 13.1.3.4.1]
From September 25, 2008, through July 27, 2009, members of the institution’s football staff and student worker 2 made 25 impermissible telephone recruiting calls. Twenty-two of the calls were made to prospect 1.

4. IMPERMISSIBLE PHONE CALLS. [NCAA Bylaws 11.7.1.2 and 13.1.3.4.1]
During the period August 1, 2008, through April 1, 2010, the assistant athletics director for football operations (“director of football operations”), the director of player personnel (“director of player personnel”) and the director of external relations (“director of external relations”), placed or received 3,484 telephone calls to or from prospects, parents, high school coaches or administrators. As none of these 3,484 calls were monitored or documented as permissible under NCAA legislation, they were assumed to have a recruiting purpose. The three listed individuals are not members of the institution’s coaching staff, so they were not permitted to make recruiting phone calls.

5. UNETHICAL CONDUCT. [NCAA Bylaws 10.01 and 10.1]
From September 2008 through the summer of 2009, the former assistant coach did not on all occasions deport himself in accordance with the generally recognized high standards of honesty normally associated with the conduct and administration of intercollegiate athletics in that his involvement in Findings B-1 and B-3 demonstrated a knowing effort to operate the institution’s intercollegiate football program contrary to NCAA legislation.


In March of 2010, LSU self-reported violations to both the NCAA and SEC relating to recruitment of Hicks. The school found during the course of its investigation that Hicks received impermissible transportation during an official visit in 2009 and a reduced-rent apartment in Baton Rouge three months before actually enrolling at LSU. The benefits were tied to former WR coach D.J. McCarthy, who has since resigned his LSU post.

In December of last year, LSU self-imposed sanctions that included “a reduction in official visits for the 2010-11 academic year, a loss of two scholarships for the 2011-12 class, a loss of two overall scholarships for the 2011-12 academic year and a reduction of two national letters of intent LSU can offer before the February 2011 signing date.”

The COI accepted those self-imposed sanctions, while also adding three additional penalties: a one-year period of probation, from July 19, 2011, through July 18, 2012; A 10 percent reduction in official visits for football during the 2010-11 and 2011-12 academic years; and a public reprimand and censure.

McCarthy was also given a one-year show cause, which “limits [writer’s note: kills] his athletically related duties.”

As previously noted, the sanctions could’ve been much, much worse were it not for the work of the school’s compliance department. From the NCAA’s release on the COI’s decision:

The investigation began after the university self-reported the violations to the enforcement staff. The committee lauded the university’s compliance staff for its efforts to investigate and uncover the violations.

The committee noted in its report, “The compliance office was proactive, fully investigated and cooperated with the enforcement staff to uncover the full range of the violations.”


Take note, future NCAA violators: a proactive tack along with a healthy dose of attrition goes a long, long way given the current scorched-earth tenor of The Association.

Oh, and one more thing: given today’s development, Vanderbilt becomes the only SEC school since 1987 to have not committed a major NCAA violation. So, the ‘Dores have that going for them. Which is good.