Report: NCAA will continue tampering enforcement, despite Big Ten complaint
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Despite a formal request from the Big Ten to suspend ongoing tampering investigations, the NCAA has made it clear the organization will continue its enforcement efforts, according to Yahoo! Sports insider Ross Dellenger. The Big Ten called for a “moratorium” on tampering-related investigations in a letter addressed to NCAA president Charlie Baker on Wednesday, On3’s Pete Nakos confirmed.
“There have been no changes in tampering rules, and there is no moratorium on enforcement activity for possible tampering violations,” NCAA spokesperson Meghan Durham Wright told Nakos. “Any changes to the infractions process — or a moratorium on enforcement of certain rules — would need to be approved by the Division I Board of Directors. The NCAA is committed to enforcing the rules as agreed to by NCAA member schools and will always work with members to ensure fair competition and to protect student-athlete well-being in this new era of college sports.”
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This comes after the other three Power Four conferences — including the ACC and Big 12 — have expressed their support for continued NCAA enforcement efforts, per Dellenger. In fact, Big 12 commissioner told Yahoo! Sports he’s “adamantly opposed” to pausing tampering investigations, while ACC commissioner Jim Phillips released a lengthy statement expressing his full-throated support for NCAA enforcement.
In its letter to the NCAA, the Big Ten argued last summer’s House settlement — which formally ushered in revenue-sharing in college athletics — made current rules unworkable. As a result, enforcement has become challenging in the new landscape, and the league requested an immediate pause on enforcement of NCAA bylaw 13.1.1.4, which prohibits schools from contacting athletes at another school without prior permission.
“The fundamental structural problem is this: the current framework has chosen to impose significant negative consequences on student-athletes who enter the transfer portal — loss of scholarships, NIL arrangements, facilities access, academic support, and relationships with coaches — while simultaneously prohibiting the pre-portal communication that would allow those student-athletes to determine whether risking those consequences is worthwhile,” the Big Ten letter reads, via ESPN’s Pete Thamel. “These rules were not designed for a world in which student-athletes are compensated market participants making annual decisions with significant economic consequences. The collision between the old rules and the new reality is producing outcomes that harm the very population the rules were designed to protect.”
According to Dellenger, the Division I Board of Directors requested the NCAA to crank up its investigations into tampering allegations in the wake of Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinneypublicly accusingOle Miss of “blatant tampering” during its recruitment of former Tigers transfer signee Luke Ferrelli on Jan. 23. Ferrelli, a former Cal linebacker who committed to Clemson on Jan. 6 and signed financial agreement documents the next day, reportedly received impermissible contact from first-year Rebels head coach Pete Golding in mid-January while he was already attending classes at Clemson. After several alleged back-and-forth conversations between Ole Miss and his agent, Ferrelli re-entered the transfer portal on Jan. 22 and immediately committed to the Rebels on the final day of college football’s two-week portal window.
— On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this report.
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