Breaking down the NCAA investigation at Florida, potential timeline

News emerged this week that Florida is under NCAA investigation over its recruitment of former star quarterback prospect Jaden Rashada, but little beyond that is publicly known about the investigation.

Gators Online’s Nick de la Torre joined the Andy Staples On3 show on Sunday night to shed more light on the issue.

“I think what the NCAA will be looking for in this case is — obviously the Gator Collective is now defunct with the Jaden Rashada stuff, but this would be a situation where the Gator Collective can offer these kind of things, but nobody at the university level can,” de la Torre said. “Billy Napier can’t know, endorse, promise these numbers. Nobody that works for the University Athletic Association can know, promise or endorse these numbers.

“That’s what the NCAA is looking for, and that’s what could get Florida in trouble. Not just Billy Napier, did anybody that’s getting paid or has a job with the University Athletic Association, were they part of the negotiations, were they part of offering money to Jaden Rashada? That’s what the NCAA is looking for.”

Rashada was famously offered a $13 million deal by the Gator Collective, Florida’s chief NIL group at the time, though the money promised never materialized. Rashada would eventually ask out of his NLI with Florida, heading to Arizona State instead.

Florida was left with the overhang of an NCAA investigation.

But it’s unclear if the NCAA will be able to find any sort of smoking gun in the case.

“The one thing I couldn’t get any definitive proof on was who at Florida knew, when they knew, what they knew,” said Staples, who covered the Rashada case while with The Athletic. “That, I imagine, is what the NCAA people are trying to figure out right now.”

De la Torre explained one way the NCAA can glean information in the process. To do so, he used the example of Amaris Mims, a Georgia player who entered the NCAA transfer portal, flirted with Florida State, then remained at Georgia.

But while he was entertaining Florida State, Mims had some interactions that ran afoul of NCAA rules. Specifically, he was brought to meet with an NIL collective by Florida State assistant Alex Atkins.

As a result, Atkins was suspended for three games in 2024, while the NCAA also levied other penalties as a result of the impermissible contact.

“I was told by a good source that the NCAA is offering immunity, and I think you can look at the Amaris Mims case,” de la Torre said. “How else would the NCAA know what he was offered by FSU or who drove him to the meeting to find out what he was going to be offered by FSU if not for the NCAA granting immunity and the player speaking to those numbers?

“So that would be a situation where, hey, are the Rashadas still angry about what happened and do they have proof that would tie Billy Napier or somebody from the University of Florida athletic association to that contract negotiation and dealings? That’s where Florida, I think, is worried.”

The bottom line is the investigation remains ongoing. And while that can be uncomfortable for Florida fans, that’s the current reality.

“In our day and age everybody wants something right now,” de la Torre said. “This is the NCAA, an organization that might move slower than the United States government, so who knows when the end date for this is?”