The Florida State Seminoles and the NCAA reached a negotiated resolution of an infractions case expected to include sanctions against the school, an assistant football coach and a booster, sources told Sports Illustrated. The NCAA announced the penalties later Thursday.
The case centers on violations related to name, image and likeness rules, sources said. The Florida State assistant coach and a booster were attempting to secure the transfer of a player from Georgia, according to sources, and the player chose not to attend FSU.
There was enough agreement on the facts of the case that it was concluded via negotiated resolution between the school and NCAA enforcement instead of a contested hearing, which would have drawn out the case for several more months.
The assistant coach’s violations were deemed Level II in the negotiated resolution, sources said. Those are considered major violations, but not as severe as Level I. The involved booster has been disassociated from the Florida State program, sources said.
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Football head coach Mike Norvell did not commit any violations, according to sources, and is not named in the report.
At the NCAA Convention this week, vice president for enforcement Jon Duncan pushed back on the notion the NCAA could not adequately police issues of tampering and impermissible benefits related to NIL cases and transfers. He said the association required cooperation from impacted schools and athletes, but added that NCAA enforcement was investigating several such cases. Now, it has finished processing one of the first such cases that has gone public.
The case comes at an acute time for Florida State.
FSU sued the Atlantic Coast Conference last month over its grant of rights agreement with member schools, seeking to break a contract that ties FSU’s media rights to the conference until 2036. The school is hoping to drastically reduce an exit fee that could run to as much as a half-billion dollars, though it currently is unclear whether Florida State has another major conference it could join. The ACC countered with a lawsuit against FSU.
Norvell, meanwhile, has been mentioned as a prime candidate to replace Nick Saban at Alabama. Saban retired Wednesday, and early speculation has put the 42-year-old Norvell in the mix for one of the most prestigious jobs in college football.
Norvell and the Seminoles went 13–0 this season before being controversially left out of the four-team College Football Playoff. Florida State mentioned the CFP snub as a motivating factor for the lawsuit, but relations with the conference had been deteriorating for months.
The Seminoles have chafed at the ACC’s stagnant media-rights revenue and were opposed when the league added new members California, Stanford and SMU. Then they went undefeated on the field, winning the league, but were controversially left out of the four-team College Football Playoff after an injury to star quarterback Jordan Travis.
