Gators, Mullen Penalized For Violating NCAA Recruiting Rules

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida’s football team was placed on one year’s probation and head coach Dan Mullen received a one-year show-cause penalty after the Gators program was found to have violated NCAA recruiting rules, the NCAA announced Tuesday.

The program broke recruiting contact rules on two occasions in 2019 and Mullen did not promote an atmosphere of compliance, the ruling said. According to NCAA officials, Mullen and unnamed assistant coach had impermissible contact with a high school player at the recruit’s high school, which was determined to be in the Seattle area.

The NCAA found that Mullen sent text messages to the player about the visit to the school and that he was interested in the player. NCAA rules stipulate that coaches cannot have off-campus contact with a player until after the recruit’s junior year of high school. The NCAA also ruled that Florida coaches had impermissible contact with more than 100 prospects when seven football teams toured Florida’s football facilities on their way to a tournament in Tampa, the NCAA said in a news release.

"As head football coach of the Florida Gators, promoting an atmosphere of compliance within our program is important to me," Mullen said in a statement Tuesday. "Following the rules and being committed to doing things the right way is part of my history as a coach, at all levels, and I regret we didn't do things the right way in this situation.

"Even though this is an isolated matter, I'm still disappointed in the violations outlined in the report. We're going to learn from our mistakes and I'm confident this won't happen again. Most importantly, we'll keep working for the benefit of our student athletes to make our program one our fans and University can be proud of."

As part of the penalties, many of the penalties were enforced this year against Mullen, who was banned all off-campus recruiting during the 2020 fall evaluation period and will also be banned from the first four days of off-campus recruiting for the fall 2021 contact period. The university has also banned Mullen from recruiting for the first 10 days of January.

The penalties were decided as part of a negotiated resolution process, the NCAA reported. 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

While the NCAA ruled that Florida’s violations did not reach the most serious levels, Florida was forced to deal with a limit on recruiting phone calls and evaluation days.

Infractions were have found to have taken place between January and March of 2019. Mullen took over the Florida program in 2018. Florida, which is ranked No. 7 in the country, finished the season 8-3 and will face No. 6 Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 30.

“There is no evidence of systemic compliance issues at Florida, but when isolated circumstances occur they are addressed head on and we accept responsibility for our actions, as evidenced by this instance," Florida Athletic Director Scott Stricklin said in a statement. "It is important for our coaches and staff to remain diligent and take responsibility for compliance and extricate themselves from potential NCAA violations.”