The University of Iowa will self-report a potential NCAA violation surrounding the recruitment of offensive lineman Kadyn Proctor to the Hawkeyes football team.
According to the Des Moines Register, athletics director Beth Goetz said that recruiting director Tyler Barnes sent a text message in the vein of "hang in there, buddy," in September while Proctor was an Alabama student.
Proctor has since transferred to Iowa and began classes in January and is a participating member of the football team.
Goetz said the text message was important to report as a potential violation. Proctor told reporters in Iowa City that Iowa coaches were supportive of him after he allowed three sacks in a home loss to Texas. Barnes tweeted a message of support after that game, which was public, but Goetz acknowledged that Barnes also sent Proctor a text.
“No bridges were burned,” Proctor said then. “That’s why it was so easy for me to pick them when I did enter the transfer portal because I had those relationships. Even when I was doing bad in the SEC, they hit me up and said, ‘We’re proud of you.’”
The text message from Barnes is being self-reported as a Level III violation. According to NCAA bylaw 13.1.1.3, "an athletics staff member ... shall not make contact with the student-athlete of another NCAA or NAIA four-year collegiate institution, directly or indirectly, without first obtaining the written permission of the first institution's athletics director."
The penalty for he violation can include anything from further eduction on rules to "impact the eligibility of the involved prospect and impact the ability of the reporting institution to utilize the one-time transfer exception," but Goetz didn't think things would escalate to that level.
“In the context of what was shared in that message, it doesn’t lessen the fact that we need to be responsible for what the rules are,” Goetz said in response to The Athletic. "But certainly there was a human element to the engagement, and I think that will be clear."
