Florida State administrators and football coaches decided to accept unprecedented penalties for NIL-related recruiting violations, which were announced in January. But the world of college athletics — specifically the intersection of NIL, court cases and NCAA enforcement — prompted the athletics department to appeal part of its negotiated agreement.
FSU’s appeal was first reported by Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger on May 17, citing a three-page letter sent to the NCAA. A copy of the letter was provided to the Osceola as part of the state’s open records laws.
The school has hired an outside law firm (Bond, Schoeneck & King) in Overland Park, Kansas, the former headquarters of the NCAA, to present “an equitable reduction of penalties in the case.”
What is FSU accepting as penalty?
The football program is accepting two years’ probation from Jan. 2024-Jan. 2026, a number of recruiting restrictions, a three-game suspension of offensive coordinator Alex Atkins and restrictions on the assistant coach for two weeks during the 2024-25 academic year as well as attending an NCAA Regional Rules event in May 2025.
What penalties are FSU appealing?
FSU asks that the infractions decision be amended “to reflect that FSU will not be obligated to impose” a fine of $5,000 plus 1% of the budget for the football program, although FSU is accepting the $5,000 fine as it is in line with what it considers a Level II – Mitigated penalty. The school is also appealing the number of scholarships penalized (five) during the 2024-25 and 25-26 academic years. Last, three remaining recruiting restrictions for spring 2024.
The scholarship restriction is something FSU coaches can work around, perhaps using NIL or Florida’s Bright Futures program as offsets. But given that all FBS schools have 85 scholarships, FSU would clearly like to maintain a level playing field.
What is the timeline of events?
- April 2022: Atkins drove a transfer portal prospect, who is not named, to an off-campus meeting (to discuss an NIL package) between a booster, who was a member of NIL collective Rising Spear, the athlete and his family
- August 2022: FSU “worked collaboratively with the enforcement staff” of the NCAA.
- Jan. 12, 2024: The penalties are announced
- Feb. 23, 2024: The NCAA’s Interim NIL Policy is no longer able to be enforced after a U.S. District Court in Tennessee granted a preliminary injunction.
- March 1, 2024: NCAA president Charlie Baker told members there can be “no penalty for conduct that occurs consistent with the injunction while the injunction is in place.” Essentially, it’s a “pause,” a word FSU used in its letter.
- April 24, 2024: FSU’s written appeal is sent to the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions
What grounds does FSU feel it has in the appeal?
This penalty is unprecedented, but FSU outlines other cases that it feels are “similar or more egregious violations” involving prospects. The best argument FSU has appears to be this: Those violations “occurred during the same time period as the violations in the FSU case and some of those violations were being actively investigated and processed.”
FSU claims those schools benefit from the pause in enforcement. Or the school states the possibility exists that there is a “complete dissolution of an infractions case” by another institution.
Part of FSU’s argument also is that the school cooperated and the violations were “more limited” whereas another school could benefit if it had a more complex case or prolonged an NCAA investigation.
What was the discussion between the prospect and the collective?
Among the penalties FSU and the NCAA committee agreed to are that “the booster encouraged PSA (unnamed prospective student athlete) to enroll at the institution and communicated an offer by the collective of approximately $15,000 per month for a period of at least one year as compensation for an NIL opportunity regarding PSA.” Also, the booster “communicated with PSA by text message and PSA’s mother by text message and phone call” afterwards.
FSU’s letter asserts that as of the U.S. District Court’s ruling on Feb. 23, “such activity is expressly permissible.”
What's next in this matter?
FSU’s letter asks the Committee on Infractions to “deem certain penalties (or a degree of those penalties) unenforceable and unfair.” The school states it is making “the first attempt to present what it believes to be an equitable reduction of penalties in the case.”
As part of the penalties announced in January, FSU and Rising Spear would need to disassociate, but the letter argues this penalty “cannot be enforced by FSU or the NCAA at this time.” Rising Spear has been active since 2021 as an NIL collective for sports like men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball, although it has not been able to show promotional ads inside FSU’s athletics venues as part of the penalties and that has limited fundraising efforts.
The Battle’s End launched in December 2022 as a collective, focusing its efforts on football and men’s golf. TBE has become one of the largest NIL collectives in the nation, with more than 5,500 members.
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