Mississippi State Gets Light Penalties for Recruiting Violations
Mississippi State received its sanctions from the NCAA for major violations committed by a booster in the recruitment of Will Redmond, a star defensive back for the Bulldogs. MSU will be on probation for the next two years, forfeited two initial and two overall scholarships for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years, and will be limited to 39 official visits in 2012-13 and 2013-14. There were also some other recruiting restrictions as well.
A former assistant coach at the center of Redmond’s recruitment, Angelo Mirando, received a one-year show-cause order for ethical conduct violations. Mirando failed to report the violations when he suspected the booster was in close contact with Redmond, then provided false and misleading information to the NCAA enforcement staff during the investigation. Mirando’s show-cause order prevents him from recruiting in any way, on- or off-campus, and prohibits him from any contact with boosters if he is employed at an NCAA institution over the next year.
The most interesting aspect of this relatively garden-variety case with minimal penalties is the timing. Mississippi State appeared before the Committee on Infractions for a hearing at the COI’s April meeting. Just over seven weeks later, a report is out. That is one of the quickest turnarounds in recent memory.
This means the Oregon report might not be too far behind. In both cases, there was substantial agreement as to the facts and violations, as evidenced by Oregon’s near success at disposing of their case through summary disposition. While Oregon disagreed with the staff (and potentially the committee) about the severity of the recruiting service violation, the committee should be able to come to a decision on that issue fairly easily.
Even if both cases were ready at the same time (or almost ready), the NCAA rarely releases more than one Division I major infractions case per week. The Mississippi State case was first in line, so it may have drawn some resources. But we could see a final answer in the Oregon case by the end of this month.