Florida State asks NCAA for reduction in penalties from NIL case
With the NCAA pausing a number of NIL-related cases involving other college athletics programs, Florida State officials are asking for a reduction in penalties from their already-resolved case, which was announced earlier this year.
In January, FSU and the NCAA announced that the Seminoles had reached a settlement that would call for a reduction in scholarships over the next two years, a three-game suspension for offensive coordinator/line coach Alex Atkins, a loss of recruiting and evaluation days for the coaching staff and other sanctions.
About six weeks after that agreement was announced, a judge in Tennessee ruled that the NCAA could not move forward with its enforcement of NIL policies regarding payments from third-parties. And the college sports governing body subsequently paused its investigations into Tennessee and other major programs.
In Florida State’s request, which was first reported Friday by Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger and verified by Warchant, the university is asking the NCAA to eliminate some of its sanctions in light of that ruling.
“FSU should not be the only institution penalized simply because it was first in the queue, the violations for which it is responsible were more limited, and it cooperated fully to resolve the case,” the letter from Florida State reads.
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***Here is a copy of the Florida State letter, which was obtained by Warchant.***
FSU’s request was sent on April 24 from the Kansas City-based law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King to officials with the NCAA Committee on Infractions. It requests an elimination of the scholarship reductions — five total during the 2024 and ’25 seasons — the limit on recruiting days and a fine of 1 percent of the Seminoles’ football budget.
Florida State is not seeking a reinstatement of Atkins for the first three games of the 2024 season. According to the NCAA’s findings, the offensive line coach took part in connecting a transfer prospect with NIL collective Rising Spear and then made misleading statements to the NCAA.
“FSU accepts that an assistant football coach provided transportation and thus ‘facilitated’ an off-campus meeting between a booster and a visiting prospective student-athlete and his family,'” the letter to the NCAA states. “Outside of the context of NIL, that contact is impermissible and so was the assistant coach’s cited conduct in the investigation.”
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