EAST LANSING– Michigan State athletics released a statement Wednesday afternoon detailing a negotiated resolution with the NCAA involving recruiting violations under former head football coach Mel Tucker.
“Today’s announcement brings closure to an NCAA investigation resulting from violations committed by a previous staff. Michigan State pursued a negotiated resolution to minimize the penalties and limit the possible impact on our current football student-athletes and staff, who were not involved in the violations,” MSU President Kevin M. Guskiewicz and Director of Athletics J Batt said in a joint letter. Neither of whom was employed by the university at the time of the violations. “With this matter behind us, we are able to move forward, focusing on the present and future of Spartan football.”
According to the NCAA, Tucker was not directly involved in the violations but rather former general manager/executive director of player personnel Saeed Khalif and former assistant head football coach Brandon Jordan were at the center of the case.
However, it was mentioned Tucker “took a hands-off approach to compliance,” and “did not promote a culture where staff felt comfortable coming to him with concerns or to report potential violations.” This prompted the NCAA to inflict a level 1 head coach responsibility violation deriving from a level 1 recruiting violation.
Tucker was fired due to sexual misconduct in the fall of 2023 and will now have a three-year show-cause order due to the investigation. As a result, Tucker will be suspended from 30% of the football season should he be employed by a new NCAA member school and he cannot participate in any coaching activities.
Khalif and Jordan also have six-year and five-year show-cause orders, respectively. The pair will be suspended for an entire regular season/12 games if they become employed by a new program.
“Michigan State athletics is committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity and operating in compliance with NCAA rules. Our compliance systems worked as intended. Once Michigan State became aware of a level 3 violation, we self-reported and followed all appropriate protocols,” Guskiewicz and Batt said. “This prompt self-disclosure and acceptance of responsibility for the violations mitigated the case and penalties, even as new violations and corroborating evidence were uncovered during the subsequent investigation.”
The Division I committee on infractions found these former staff members within the program guilty of providing impermissible recruiting inducements and benefits. Khalif and Jordan also engaged in impermissible contact with prospective student-athletes.
As a result, Spartan football will be dealt three years’ prohibition and multiple recruiting restrictions. Specifically, this comes out to reductions of official and unofficial visits, limits on recruiting communications, recruiting-persons days, off-campus recruiting contacts and evaluations over the three-year period.
MSU is also faced with financial penalties of $30,000 plus 1.5% of the football program’s budget and vacated wins from 2022-2024. This includes every victory in this span, totaling 14 across Tucker’s last full season and current head coach Jonathan Smith’s first, due to the participation of ineligible student athletes.
“While we accept the NCAA’s findings and respect the process, we are disappointed in the prescribed penalty related to the vacation of record,” Guskiewicz and Batt said. “We understand that the enforcement process follows established guidelines, but we also recognize the opportunity for continued modernization.”
Smith and the current staff will bear the burden of violations committed under the Tucker era as the road ahead for MSU football gets rockier. The Spartans currently carry a 3-6 record for the 2025 campaign and are not only looking for the first Big Ten win of the season, but now the first non-vacated conference win under Smith. They will aim to accomplish this on Saturday afternoon against Penn State with kick-off set for 3:30 p.m. at Spartan Stadium.
