NCAA Penalizes Southern Utah for Football Recruiting Violations

Southern Utah agreed that tampering violations occurred in the football program when football head coach DeLane Fitzgerald impermissibly contacted two student-athletes from other schools who were not entered into the NCAA Transfer Portal, according to an agreement released by the Division I Committee on Infractions. As a result of the impermissible recruiting contacts and Fitgerald's personal involvement in the violations, the parties agreed that Fitzgerald violated head coach responsibility rules. The school also agreed that it failed to monitor its football program.

The school, Fitzgerald and the enforcement staff agreed that the violations in this case occurred when Fitzgerald impermissibly tampered with two student-athletes who were enrolled at other schools before they had entered the Transfer Portal. The first violation occurred when Fitzgerald participated in a 17-minute phone call with a student-athlete. Four days later that student-athlete entered the Transfer Portal and ultimately enrolled at Southern Utah. Another violation occurred when Fitzgerald sent two text messages to another student-athlete requesting game film. That student-athlete indicated that he was not interested in transferring and had not entered the Transfer Portal. 

Due to Fitzgerald's direct involvement in the violations, the parties agreed that he violated head coach responsibility rules.  Because the violations occurred after Jan. 1, 2023, they also automatically triggered a head coach responsibility violation under new membership-approved rules. Previously, head coaches had the opportunity to rebut their presumed responsibility if they could demonstrate that they promoted an atmosphere of compliance and monitored their staff. 

Southern Utah and the enforcement staff also agreed that because the school's compliance department did not provide football staff with adequate rules education related to the Transfer Portal and did not have sufficient processes in place to certify that no impermissible contact occurred before student-athletes entering the Transfer Portal, the school failed to monitor its football program.

The parties used ranges identified by the Division I membership-approved infractions penalty guidelines to agree upon Level II-mitigated penalties for the university and Level II-standard penalties for Fitzgerald. The decision contains the full list of penalties as approved by the Committee on Infractions, including:

• One year of probation.
• A $5,000 fine.
• A two-week prohibition on all recruiting activities for the football program during a permissible recruiting period in 2024. One week (seven consecutive days) took place April 15-21 during the spring transfer window for football.
• A suspension from one regular-season game during the 2023 football season for Fitzgerald.
• A two-year show-cause order for Fitzgerald. During the show-cause order, any employing member school shall impose a two-week off-campus recruiting ban for Fitzgerald, including one week during the spring transfer window. Fitzgerald will also be suspended from all recruiting communications for one week during the 2025 transfer window.

Members of the Committee on Infractions are drawn from the NCAA membership and members of the public. The members of the panel who reviewed this case are Kendra Greene, senior woman administrator and senior associate athletics director for internal operations at North Carolina Central; Dave Roberts, special advisor to Southern California and chief hearing officer for the panel; and Stephen Madva, attorney in private practice.