The former Boise State assistant men's tennis coach and former head men's tennis coach committed NCAA violations when the former assistant coach engaged in a series of impermissible recruiting activities, according to an agreement released by the Division I Committee on Infractions. Due to the recruiting violations, the head men's tennis coach violated head coach responsibility legislation by failing to demonstrate that he monitored his assistant coach.
The school, former assistant men's tennis coach and enforcement staff agreed that violations occurred when the former assistant coach communicated with and recruited student-athletes who were not in the NCAA Transfer Portal. His conduct included asking student-athletes enrolled at other NCAA Division I schools to assist him in recruiting prospects to Boise State, personally recruiting prospects to Boise State who were not yet in the Transfer
Portal and involving Boise State student-athletes in the recruitment of prospects.
More specifically, over the course of two academic years, the former assistant coach impermissibly communicated with three student-athletes enrolled at other schools, in part, to gain their assistance with recruiting four prospects to Boise State. The former assistant coach contacted them through various means, including by phone, messaging over social media and playing video games. Although the former assistant coach was not recruiting those three student-athletes, none of them was in the Transfer Portal when he contacted them, making the communications impermissible.
At the request of the former assistant coach, those student-athletes contacted four prospects in an attempt to recruit them to Boise State. One of those prospects was not in the Transfer Portal. The former assistant coach also offered two of the student-athletes financial rewards if they were able to successfully recruit the prospects. However, none of those prospects transferred to the university.
Further violations occurred when the former assistant coach impermissibly contacted three men's tennis student-athletes from another school — none of whom was in the Transfer Portal — while both programs were in Denver for a tennis tournament. The assistant coach was attempting to recruit two of the student-athletes, and one eventually transferred to Boise State. As a result of the impermissible recruiting contacts, that student-athlete competed in 17 contests while ineligible while at the university.
Additionally, the former assistant men's tennis coach also directed three then-current Boise State men's tennis student-athletes to assist in the recruitment of numerous prospects over three academic years. The student-athletes' recruitment of the prospects was impermissible.
As a result of the assistant coach's conduct, the school, former head men's tennis coach and the enforcement staff agree that the head coach violated the principles of head coach responsibility legislation. Specifically, the former head coach is presumed responsible for the violations and did not rebut the presumption of responsibility that he failed to monitor the assistant coach.
This case was processed through the negotiated resolution process. The process was used instead of a formal hearing or summary disposition because the university, the involved coaches and the enforcement staff agreed on the violations and the penalties. The Division I Committee on Infractions reviewed the case to determine whether the resolution was in the best interests of the Association and whether the agreed-upon penalties were reasonable. Negotiated resolutions may not be appealed and do not set case precedent for other infractions cases.
The university and the enforcement staff used ranges identified by the Division I membership-approved infractions penalty guidelines to agree upon Level II-standard penalties for the university, Level II-aggravated penalties for the former assistant coach and Level II-mitigated for the former head coach. The decision contains the full list of penalties as approved by the Committee on Infractions, including:
- Two years of probation.
- A $5,000 fine.
- A 12.5% reduction of official paid visits in the men's tennis program during the 2023-24 academic year.
- A six-week prohibition on unofficial visits in the men's tennis program during the 2023-24 academic year.
- A six-week prohibition on recruiting communications in the men's tennis program during the 2023-24 academic year.
- A six-week prohibition on off-campus recruiting contacts in the men's tennis program during the 2023-24 academic year.
- A three-year show-cause order for the former assistant men's tennis coach. During that period, any NCAA member school employing him must restrict him from any athletically related duties unless it shows cause why the restrictions should not apply.
- A two-game suspension for the former head men's tennis coach. Any NCAA member school employing him must suspend him from the first two men's tennis regular-season contests of the 2022-23 or 2023-24 seasons. During that period, he must not participate in any coaching activities, including, but not limited to, team travel, practice, video study, recruiting and team meetings.
- A vacation of all records in which the student-athlete competed while ineligible. The university must provide a written report containing the contests impacted to the NCAA media coordination and statistics staff within 14 days of the public release of the decision.
Members of the Committee on Infractions are drawn from the NCAA membership and members of the public. The members of the committee who reviewed this case are Joe Novak, former football head coach at Northern Illinois University; Kendra Greene, deputy athletics director and senior woman administrator at North Carolina Central; and Dave Roberts, chief hearing officer for the panel and special advisor to Southern California.
