What Will Muschamp said about NCAA rules violations

The NCAA announced Wednesday morning that South Carolina had committed recruiting violations. Gamecocks head coach Will Muschamp said Wednesday afternoon what he thought about that.

“They were very minor,” Muschamp said. “They were overly minor in nature and they have been handled and they have closed the book and we are moving forward. Nothing to it.”

The NCAA release stated that: “Two University of South Carolina, Columbia, assistant football coaches leveraged relationships with a high school’s coaches to create a built-in recruiting advantage, according to a Division I Committee on Infractions panel.

This case was resolved through the summary disposition process, a cooperative effort in which the involved parties collectively submit the case to the Committee on Infractions in written form. The NCAA enforcement staff, university and involved parties must agree to the facts and overall level of the case to use this process instead of a formal in-person hearing.

The violations stemmed from the assistant coaches’ two separate visits to the high school to observe a football team’s workout during an evaluation period. While this evaluation is otherwise allowed under NCAA rules, the high school head football coach and strength and conditioning coach handpicked four prospects to perform drills exclusively for the assistant coach at the assistant coach’s request. One week later, the strength coach pulled three of the same four prospects aside to perform drills exclusively for the other assistant coach.”

The penalties include a $5,000 fine, no recruitment of any of the prospects involved in the violations, reduction of fall evaluation days by four, from 42 to 38, during the fall 2017 evaluation period, no engagement in off-campus recruiting activities at the involved high school from Sept. 1, 2017, to Aug. 31, 2018 (self-imposed by the university), suspension of each involved assistant coach from off-campus recruiting activities for 42 days during the fall 2017 evaluation period (self-imposed by the university).

All the penalties were self-imposed.

This story was originally published December 20, 2017 at 4:41 PM with the headline "What Will Muschamp said about NCAA rules violations."