NCAA places LSU football on probation over recruiting violations made by a ex-assistant coach

The NCAA placed a year-long probation period on LSU’s football program on Thursday after it found that former offensive line coach James Cregg had violated recruiting restrictions during the 2020 football season.

The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has determined that during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cregg violated restrictions on personal contact with potential recruits and provided improper solicitations to a recruit.

The committee also imposed a three-year “show cause” sentence on Cregg, meaning his own recruiting activities would be curtailed for that period if he were hired by another NCAA member program.

“While the (committee) has encountered more abusive behavior in previous cases, the violations in this case represent willful misconduct that should inflict on members,” the panel said.

“The COVID-19 recruitment dead period was intended to protect the health and safety of prospects, student athletes and institution staff. It also leveled the playing field for recruitment at a time when government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions varied across the country.”

Assistant coach James Cregg (seen here from his time with the Raiders) was fired in June 2021

The investigation also involved a former deputy director of recruiting, whose name has not been made public.

The NCAA continues to have a separate investigation through its Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP) into alleged recruiting violations by former LSU basketball coach Will Wade, who was fired after last season, and into booster payments to football players made prior to recent rule changes that allowed players to receive financial endorsement deals from program sponsors.

LSU fired Cregg in June 2021, citing alleged violations of NCAA recruiting rules. Cregg sued him for breach of contract, arguing that he could not be fired for some reason without an NCAA ruling on the charges.

A state district judge agreed, ordering LSU in August to pay Cregg $492,945 — the remainder of his contract. LSU has said it plans to appeal the court’s ruling.

The NCAA investigation found that Cregg arranged to greet a recruit and his family in September 2020 and gave the recruit a bag of used LSU gear.

The NCAA accepted the school’s self-imposed punishment, including a $5,000 fine

The commission said the prospect and his family returned to LSU on another trip shortly after, when a former assistant director of recruiting collected the recruit and his girlfriend from their hotel and took them to Tiger Stadium for a tour.

The tour was considered a violation of both the restrictions on inducements and personal contact.

During that trip, Cregg met the recruit and his family in his neighborhood. The prospect’s mother had indicated that she would move to Baton Rouge if her son played for LSU, and had sought Cregg’s advice on where to look for housing, the committee said.

Cregg and the assistant recruiting director “acknowledged that they knew their conduct was inadmissible,” according to the NCAA committee.

The other penalties announced by the NCAA on Thursday had already been imposed by LSU itself. Those include a $5,000 fine, a limit of 55 official visits for football during the 2022-2023 academic year, a one-week ban on unofficial visits to the football program before the current academic year, a one-week ban on recruiting communication in the football program before the current academic year and a reduction of seven evaluation days in the football program during the autumn 2021 evaluation period.

LSU said in a statement that the ruling “ends a 21-month collaborative process between the university and the NCAA.”

LSU “has been working with enforcement personnel to uncover the truth and impose sanctions on its own,” the statement said. “We are grateful to the commission and the enforcers for their work and for accepting our self-imposed sentences.”

LSU has also put a limit on official visits for this academic year and a one-week ban on soliciting communications and a reduction in evaluation days from last season