CEDAR CITY, Utah-Per news released Tuesday morning, Southern Utah University football has agreed tampering violations occurred in the Thunderbirds’ program.
Head coach DeLane Fitzgerald, per the report, impermissibly contacted two student-athletes from other schools who had not entered into the NCAA transfer portal per an agreement released by the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions.
As a result of the impermissible contacts and Fitzgerald’s personal involvement, the parties agreed Fitzgerald violated his responsibilities as head coach.
The Cedar City, Utah-based university agreed it failed to monitor its football program.
The first violation occurred when Fitzgerald participated in a 17-minute phone call with a student-athlete from another school.
Four days later, this student-athlete entered the transfer portal, ultimately enrolling at SUU.
Another violation occurred when Fitzgerald sent a pair of text messages to another student-athlete, requesting game film.
This student-athlete declared he was uninterested in transferring to SUU and has not yet entered the transfer portal.
These violations occurred after January 1, 2023, automatically triggering a head coach responsibility violation under new membership-approved rules.
Previously, head coaches had the opportunity to rebut any presumed responsibility if they could demonstrate they had provided an atmosphere of compliance and monitored their staff.
SUU leadership admitted that because they had not provided the football staff with adequate rules education on the matter and lacked sufficient processes in place to certify no impermissible contact occurred before student-athletes entered the transfer portal, the school failed to monitor its football program.
The parties used ranges identified by the NCAA Division I membership-approved infractions penalty guidelines to agree upon Level II-mitigated penalties for SUU and Level II-standard penalties for Fitzgerald.
The decision contains the full list of penalties administered to the Thunderbirds’ football program as follows:
-One year of probation
-A $5,000 fine
-A two-week prohibition on all recruiting activities for the football program during a permissible recruiting period in 2024. This includes one week which has already occurred (April 15-21, 2024) during the spring transfer window for football
-A suspension for one regular season game during the 2024 season for Fitzgerald
-A two-year show cause order for Fitzgerald. During this show cause order, any employing member school shall impose a two-week off-campus recruiting ban for Fitzgerald. This includes one week during the spring transfer window. Fitzgerald is also to be suspended from all recruiting communications for one week during the 2025 transfer window.
Members of the Committee on Infractions are drawn from the NCAA membership and members of the public.
Those who reviewed this case include North Carolina Central senior woman administrator and senior associate athletics director for internal operations Dr. Kendra Greene, University of Southern California special advisor Dave Roberts, the chief hearing officer for the panel and Stephen A. Madva of Philadelphia, a retired attorney and the chairman emeritus of Montgomery, McCracken, Walker and Rhoads of Philadelphia, Berwyn, Pa., New York, Cherry Hill, N.J., and Wilmington, Del.
