The ethical lines have always been blurred, and at times nonexistent, in college sports, but modern transfer portal rules and the emergence of NIL deals (name, image likeness) have made it even easier to poach players from other schools. Florida State football just got caught allegedly trying to use these tools to their advantage.
“NCAA is suspending an FSU assistant three games for a recruiting violation related to connecting a potential transfer with an NIL collective,” Ralph D. Russo of the Associated Press posted on X Thursday night. This decision continues a recent trend of bad news for the Seminoles, which started when they were excluded from the College Football Playoff in the beginning of December.
The violation is said to have occurred when the assistant facilitated an improper meeting between a player and booster.
“During that contact, the booster encouraged the prospect to enroll at Florida State and offered a name, image and likeness deal as a recruiting inducement,” NCAA.org wrote. “The assistant coach then violated ethical conduct rules when he provided false or misleading information about his involvement in the arranged meeting.”
It is unrealistic to expect college football to automatically become squeaky clean because of these recent changes. All it really does is create a level playing field for rule-breaking to occur. The sport is evolving for the better in certain ways, but the NCAA will probably need to implement a firm structure to govern its rules.
This suspension is not something Florida State football wants to expend a lot of energy on, with other matters surely preoccupying the program's attention at this moment.
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