An NCAA-led investigation that spanned over a calendar year from January 2018 to February 2019 surrounding Texas A&M football has now been completed. The governing body released its findings on Thursday, handing down severe punishments for the Jimbo Fisher-led program.
Texas A&M football given probation, fined for recruiting violations
The NCAA found that Fisher was actively involved in breaking recruiting rules. Its investigation concluded that Fisher “failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance because of his personal involvement in the recruiting violation,” per the NCAA’s official website.
Here’s a list of all the penalties the governing body handed out to the Aggies football program.
- One years of probation.
- A fine of $5,000.
- A reduction in football official visits by 17 days during the 2019-20 academic year.
- An off-campus recruiting ban for the entire football coaching staff for November 2019, which reduced the permissible evaluation days for the 2019-20 academic year by 19.
- A seven-day off-campus recruiting ban for the football coaching staff for the 2020 spring off-campus recruiting period and a 10-day off-campus recruiting ban for the football coaching staff for the 2020 fall off-campus recruiting period.
- The university ended its recruitment of the prospect.
- A ban on recruiting any prospects from the prospect’s high school for the 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-222 academic years.
- A six-month show-cause order for the head coach. The terms of the show-cause order include a previously served nine-day ban on phone calls, emails or texts with prospects in January 2020; a reduction in off-campus recruiting contact days by three for the December 2019 through January 2020 contact period; a ban on all off-campus recruiting activities for the fall 2020 contact period; additional one-on-one rules education; and a public statement from the head coach addressing the violations.
These are certainly some steep punishments for the SEC football program.
Jimbo Fisher could already be on the chopping block at Texas A&M
Since taking over as the Aggies’ head coach back in 2018, Fisher has posted a mediocre 17-9 record. That came after a dominating eight-year stint as the Florida State Seminoles’ head coach.
While these latest findings won’t necessarily push Fisher out the door at College Station, they certainly are not going to help. Should the 2020 college football season go on as planned, Fisher will have to lead his team to more success than we saw over the first two years of his tenure. That’s for sure.