Dan Mullen Gets One-Year Show-Cause for Florida Recruiting Violations

Dan Mullen, the head football coach of the Florida Gators, received a one-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA after they ruled that Mullen "did not promote an atmosphere of compliance" at Florida.

"The university, the head football coach, an assistant coach and NCAA enforcement staff agreed that the assistant coach and head coach had impermissible in-person contact with a prospect when they met with a prospect’s high school coach while the prospect was in the room," reads the NCAA announcement on the matter. "At that meeting, the Florida coaches expressed an interest in recruiting the prospect. Leading up to that visit, the head coach sent the prospect texts about his upcoming visit to the high school and his interest in recruiting the prospect. NCAA rules were violated because off-campus recruiting contacts are not allowed until after a football prospect’s junior year of high school. The violations were Level II."

There are several penalties for Florida. The most significant one is the one-year show-cause for Mullen. What does this mean? The NCAA says: "During that period, the head coach is prohibited from all off-campus recruiting activity during the fall 2020 evaluation period and a four-day off-campus recruiting ban during the fall 2021 contact period."

Surely, more will come out about the specific details of these infractions now that this NCAA announcement is out there. It doesn't seem like a knockout blow to Mullen and Florida, but perhaps it could hurt their recruiting on the margins.

Here is the full NCAA announcement.