Two University of South Carolina assistant football coaches leveraged relationships with high school coaches to develop an advantage in recruiting, the NCAA announced Wednesday.
According to a report by the Division I Committee on Infractions panel, the violations resulted from two separate visits to the high school in the report to watch a football team work out during the evaluation period. The violations occurred when four recruits were picked among the high school team by the head coach and strength and conditioning coach to have a private drill session with the Gamecocks assistant coach at his request.
One week after the private workout, the other South Carolina assistant coach visited the high school and had a session with three of the same four prospects from the week prior.
"Impermissible contacts and tryouts — no matter how few or brief — are an important matter to the membership," the panel said, according to the NCAA. "The violations confer an unfair advantage in the recruiting process on institutions that engage in them to the detriment of institutions that comply with the legislation."
South Carolina was fined $5,000 in addition to self-imposing four forms of discipline including suspending the two assistant coaches for 42 days during the fall 2017 evaluation period.
The University also will not recruit any of the prospects involved in the violations, reduce fall evaluation days from 42 to 38 during the fall 2017 evaluation period and not engage in off-campus recruiting activities at the high school in question from Sept. 1, 2017 to Aug. 31, 2018.
