Former Air Force Academy football coaches violated NCAA recruiting during COVID-19 ‘dead period’
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (KRDO) -- The U.S. Air Force Academy and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) came to an agreement regarding football recruiting violations.
According to the NCAA, three former Air Force football assistant coaches and one Air Force Academy Preparatory School football coach violated NCAA recruiting violations during the COVID-19 dead period. The NCAA said the assistant coach violated ethical conduct rules when "he provided false or misleading information during the enforcement investigation and encouraged prospects to do the same."
In the infractions decision, the NCAA said several former Air Force assistant football coaches believed they were at a recruiting disadvantage and suspected having coaches from the U.S. Air Force Academy Preparatory School host prospects for campus tours. This was when the Air Force closed its campus to all prospective students.
In Sept. 2020, the Air Force admissions office began offering, "windshield tours," which allowed admitted prospective students to register online and participate in a self-guided driving tour of campus. Despite the compliance, the NCAA said the four former football coaches used the prep school coaches on the "windshield tours." During those tours, prospects accessed the football stadium, locker rooms, athletics department weight room, and indoor athletics facility without notifying the football head coach or the compliance office.
According to the NCAA, these tours violated NCAA rules because they happened during the COVID-19 recruiting dead period, which prohibited in-person recruiting contacts by any institutional staff.
The NCAA said in 2022, the school and four individuals reached an agreement with the enforcement staff about the violations and penalties and requested the Division 1 Committee on Infractions to publicly acknowledge the infractions case so they could immediately begin serving penalties while awaiting the committee's final decision.
The panel classified the case as Level I-aggravated for the former assistant coach. In addition to the penalties agreed to by the school and the other individuals in September, the committee used the Division I membership-approved infractions penalty guidelines to prescribe:
- A three-year show-cause order for the assistant coach who contested the case. During that period, any NCAA member school employing him must restrict him from all athletically related activities unless it shows cause why the restrictions should not apply.
Friday, the USAFA released a statement related to self-reported NCAA recruiting violations:
“The U.S. Air Force Academy held steadfast to our core values and beliefs throughout this process and are grateful to bring this matter to conclusion. Beginning with self-reporting the violations, we have worked collaboratively with the NCAA Enforcement staff and Committee on Infractions on our negotiated resolution to ensure that those individuals responsible for the violations were identified and held accountable and that the Academy took full responsibility as an institution. We also worked with the NCAA to ensure the penalties were significant and commensurate with the violations. While the release of the full report and its details is disappointing and not in keeping with our expectations, we are confident that our football program will do better moving forward.”
U.S. Air Force Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Richard Clark and Director of Athletics Nathan Pine
A spokesperson for the Academy said:
The U.S. Air Force Academy Athletic Department self-reported recruiting violations to NCAA Enforcement staff on Feb. 17, 2021 due to the actions of four assistant football coaches during the
NCAA COVID “dead period.”The Academy terminated employment for the three civilian assistant coaches and reassigned the military coach to an administrative position and fully cooperated with the NCAA after self-reporting the violations. Compliance staff within the Academy Athletic Department discovered visit irregularities as part of their standard monitoring and conducted appropriate fact-finding in advance of reporting to
USAFA Spokesperson
Until this first self-reported major violation, the Academy has never had a level one or level two violation. According to NCAA bylaws, a history of self-monitoring and self-reporting violations is a sign of a healthy compliance and rules-monitoring program.
