LSU's football program has been charged with three violations stemming from a wide-ranging ruling from the NCAA's Independent Resolution Panel (IRP), handed down Thursday, that also includes the men's basketball program. As part of the ruling, the football program received a Level I violation, a Level II violation and a Level III violation. Not only was LSU hit with a three-year probation sentence, which is set to end on Sept. 21, 2023, but the football team was forced to vacate 37 of its wins from the 2012-15 season due to the Level I violation.
Vacating victories is significant, as it drops former coach Les Miles' career record to 108-73 with a winning percentage of .597. That means that he no longer meets the .600 career winning percentage requirement for College Football Hall of Fame candidates. The Tigers must also forfeit two bowl wins from that span.
According to the NCAA's release, the Level I violation dates back to 2012 when a representative of LSU's athletics interests paid the father of a prospective athlete a total of $180,150 over a five-year span as part of an embezzlement scheme. The athlete enrolled at LSU and competed from 2012-16. The representative has been disassociated from the program for 10 years.
The other violations were committed under former coaching staffs and the university already self-imposed punishments that the NCAA found adequate. Those included a postseason ban during the 2020-21 season, a reduction in eight football scholarships from 2021-22, a fine of $5,000 plus 0.5% of its averaged football budget, and vacated wins in which ineligible athletes competed in from 2012-16.
The Level II violation seems to stem from former LSU wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who distributed cash handouts to players on the field following the 2020 College Football Playoff National Championship in New Orleans. Beckham gave four student-athletes approximately $2,000 in impermissible benefits, with part of the act being caught on camera and posted to social media. LSU self-reported the incident and banned Beckham from all non-public areas of its facilities for two years.
The final violation states that a former coach (Ed Orgeron) had impermissible contact with a 2020 football prospect during a Jan. 2019 evaluation period. As part of the probation, LSU has to inform prospective student athletes that it is on probation and file annual compliance reports to the NCAA regarding implementation of prescribed penalties and its monitoring of representatives of athletics' interests.
