Florida State Put on Two-Year Probation for NIL Violations
Last year ended with a gigantic thud for Florida State University This year is starting no better for the Seminoles.
It appears as though things will go from bad to worse for FSU.
First, they get left out of the four-team playoff by the NCAA despite going 13-0 and winning the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship.
Next, they get slaughtered by the University of Georgia in the Orange Bowl 63-3 after dozens of players opt out of the game and refuse to play due to either entering the transfer portal, turning professional, or just simply because they did not want to play in the game and risk injury.
Then, on Wednesday, when Nick Saban retires from Alabama, FSU’s 2023 National Coach of the Year, Mike Norvell, appears to be one of the heavy favorites to leave Florida State and replace Saban as head coach of the Crimson Tide. The proverbial jury is still out as to whether or not Norvell wants to leave Tallahassee for Tuscaloosa.
Finally, on Thursday, FSU was placed on probation by the NCAA for actions stemming from violations concerning the NIL program.
These violations allegedly occurred last season. Per Yahoo Sports, a Florida State assistant coach, who was identified as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Alex Atkins, initiated an impermissible contact between a booster and a recruit for purposes of inducing him to transfer. The player was identified by 247Sports as Georgia offensive tackle Amarius Mims.
Atkins was slammed with a two-year show cause and was suspended for the first three Seminole games next season. FSU must also cease and desist from having any contact with the booster for three years and said booster may have no contact with the NIL collective for a period of one year.
According to 247Sports, a show-cause order, per the NCAA is an order that “requires a member institution to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Committee on Infractions why it should not be subject to a penalty or additional penalty for not taking appropriate disciplinary or corrective action with regard to an institutional staff member or representative of the institution’s athletics interests found by the Committee on Infractions as having been involved in a violation of NCAA bylaws.”
