Michigan State football must vacate wins for NCAA violations in Mel Tucker era
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Michigan State football has been placed on three years of probation by the NCAA for violations during Mel Tucker’s tenure as coach and will be forced to vacate 14 wins, including five games under Jonathan Smith.
Tucker violated head coach responsibility rules and failed to monitor his program and was ruled to have committed Level 1-standard violations, but was not involved in the recruiting violations, according to the NCAA release. The NCAA says Tucker "followed an NFL model for his program, running all off-fieldoperations through Khalif, his general manager," but "failed to adequately monitor his program."
For that, Tucker has been given a three-year show-cause order, in which he will be suspended from 30% of the football season during the first season of his new employment.
The university released a statement that the Spartans will be penalized $30,000 plus 1.5% of the football program’s budget because former staff members “arranged for and provided impermissible recruiting inducements and benefits and unofficial visit expenses.” MSU, the NCAA and its Committee on Infractions also found Tucker’s staff “engaged in impermissible contacts with prospective student-athletes.”
Along with the financial punishments, the Spartans will vacate wins from 2022-24, 14 in total, due to participation of three ineligible players.
MSU also will receive restrictions on official visits, unofficial visits, recruiting communication, recruiting-person days and off-campus recruiting contacts and evaluations over a three-year probationary period.
An MSU spokesman confirmed all of the Spartans' wins for the past three seasons will be vacated. Tucker went 5-7 in 2022, he and interim coach Harlon Barnett were 4-8 in 2023, and MSU was 5-7 in Jonathan Smith's first season in 2024.
The NCAA said the "institution shall vacate all regular season and conference tournament wins, records and participation in which the ineligible student-athletes competed from the time they became ineligible through the time they were reinstated as eligible for competition." Those athletes involved are no longer members of the football program this season, an MSU spokesman confirmed.
The NCAA identified former Tucker staff members Saeed Khalif and Brandon Jordan, along with other members of the football staff, for offering or providing approximately $10,764 in impermissible recruiting inducements to six prospects who took unofficial visits to MSU. Jordan, who had worked as a trainer with NFL athletes before Tucker hired him in January 2022, received a five-year show-cause order effective Sept. 25, 2025 that runs through 2030 for Level 1 NCAA violations. Khalif, who Tucker hired away from Wisconsin in June 2021, received a six-year show-cause order that runs through 2031.
Tucker contested his head coach responsibility violation, and his case was processed through a written record hearing, according to the NCAA's report.
President Kevin Guskiewicz and athletic director J Batt, neither of whom were working at MSU at the time, issued a joint statement on the findings Wednesday, Nov. 12:
“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. With this matter behind us, we are able to move forward, focusing on the present and future of Spartan football.
“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. This prompt self-disclosure and acceptance of responsibility for the violations mitigated the case and penalties, even as new violations and corroborating evidence was uncovered during the subsequent investigation.
“While we accept the NCAA’s findings and respect the process, we are disappointed in the prescribed penalty related to the vacation of records. We understand that the enforcement process follows established guidelines, but we also recognize the opportunity for continued modernization.”
Tucker was fired during the 2023 season for off-field allegations. Tucker was 20-14 overall and 12-13 in Big Ten play during his three-plus seasons from 2020-23.
The Spartans are currently 3-6 and on a six-game losing streak under his second-year replacement, Jonathan Smith.
Read the full NCAA report by clicking here.
This is a breaking story and will be updated at freep.com.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MSU football hit with NCAA punishments for Mel Tucker era violations
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