Florida Gators under NCAA Investigation
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Gators are under investigation by the NCAA. Matt Baker of the Tampa Bay Times was the first to report the news that the NCAA had sent a Notice of Inquiry to Florida President Ben Sasse back in June.
Gators Online obtained the four-page note but it did not clearly state what the allegations were. Gators Online reached out to Florida for a comment.
“We have been and will continue to cooperate with the NCAA,” Florida spokesperson Steve McClain said in a statement to the Gators Online. “We hold ourselves to high standards of excellence and integrity on and off the field. Because we follow NCAA policies about maintaining confidentiality, we are unable to offer additional comments.”
Brett McMurphy of The Action Network reported that the investigation stems from the recruitment of Jaden Rashada.
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The Gators were involved in a major public, and rather messy, NIL ordeal one year ago involving quarterback Jaden Rashada, which Gators Online covered thoroughly here. Rashada signed a National Letter of Intent with the University of Florida but was released from his scholarship after the messy NIL deal, which brought national attention to the Florida Gators and the Gator Collective.
Florida recently came under NCAA investigation in 2020 under former coach Dan Mullen. The inquiry found two violations — a Level II violation which involved Mullen and an assistant meeting with a recruit before his junior year of high school, and a Level III violation regarding impermissible contact. The Level III violations involved members of the Gators’ coaching staff having impermissible contact with approximately 127 prospects when seven 7-on-7 football teams visited the campus and toured the football facilities on their way to a tournament in Tampa. The assistant coach had incidental and impermissible contacts with several prospects, according to the agreement.
Last May, the NCAA Board of Directors sent out a new guidance to its Division I member schools clarifying their NIL stance and prohibiting
“The guidance is effective immediately,” the NCAA release stated. “For violations that occurred prior to May 9, 2022, the board directed the enforcement staff to review the facts of individual cases but to pursue only those actions that clearly are contrary to the published interim policy, including the most severe violations of recruiting rules or payment for athletics performance. Schools are reminded of their obligation to report any potential violations through the traditional self-reporting process.
“Today, the Division I Board of Directors took a significant first step to address some of the challenges and improper behaviors that exist in the name, image and likeness environment that may violate our long-established recruiting rules. While the NCAA may pursue the most outrageous violations that were clearly contrary to the interim policy adopted last summer, our focus is on the future. The new guidance establishes a common set of expectations for the Division I institutions moving forward, and the board expects all Division I institutions to follow our recruiting rules and operate within these reasonable expectations,” board chair Jere Morehead, president, University of Georgia, said in the statement
