Georgia Tech and the NCAA both issued news releases Thursday announcing the school’s rules violations and penalties regarding impermissible phone calls and text messages to prospects.

The investigation was reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in August.

The NCAA’s infractions committee, which included former Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr, determined that Tech failed to monitor its sports programs.

Tech, which was already placed on probation through 2015 after the investigation into impermissible benefits given to former football player Demaryius Thomas, accepted a two-year extension of its probation, to June 13, 2017.

Former assistant football coach Todd Spencer, who sent almost 80 percent of the 256 impermissible text messages, was given a one-year show-cause order and will be prohibited from any recruiting activities. Spencer resigned his position at Tech in Jan. 2012 after the school had discovered his violations, stayed out of college coaching for one season and is now at Army.

Schools hiring coaches with a show-cause order that want to avoid the NCAA penalties on that coach can go before the NCAA to show why it shouldn’t be penalized for hiring him or her and provide its plan to monitor the coach.

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Kirby Smart (left) and Georgia beat Brent Key and Georgia Tech 44-42 in eight overtimes last November in Athens. The Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets bring Clean Old-Fashioned Hate off campus for 2025, playing at 3:30 p.m. Friday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. (Hyosub Shin/AJC 2024)

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Carleigh Knight (left) and her sister, Natalie Rogovin, look at Christmas ornaments while shopping at Kudzu Antiques + Modern in Decatur on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. (Natrice Miller/AJC)

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