Youngstown State Football Facing Two Years Probation

The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has announced penalties against Youngstown State University after it was determined that the university failed to monitor its football program.

247Sports' Dean Straka reports that the violations, which were committed while the program was under the leadership of Bo Pelini, included "an assistant coach having impermissible contacts with a prospect" before the program "permitted three football staff members to recruit off-campus without completing the coaches certification test."

Youngstown State faces two years of probation and a $5,000 fine for the violations and will encounter two-week bans on both unofficial visits and recruiting communication before the 2020-21 academic year comes to an end, the article reads.

The unnamed assistant football coach involved in the violations was already suspended from all coaching duties in the preseason and was banned from recruiting activities in February, the article states.

"As outlined by the release from the NCAA on Tuesday, the university, the football assistant coach and NCAA enforcement staff agreed that while the aforementioned prospect was enrolled at a Division II university, the assistant coach had more than three dozen impermissible contacts without obtaining written permission from the prospect’s school," the article reads. "Further violations of that nature were committed when the prospect made an unofficial visit and a later official visit."

Pelini went on to take the defensive coordinator job at LSU last offseason, though the NCAA said in a release that he and two assistant coaches had not yet taken the 2019-20 coaches certification test required for off-campus recruiting activities. Therefore, the NCAA deemed that they had "impermissible contacts with 16 prospects and conducted impermissible evaluations of two other prospects, by virtue of not taking the test," the article states.

247Sports reports that Pelini and the assistants had received proper communication about their status regarding the test.

"It was confirmed that the NCAA had sent reminders to the coaches who had not passed the required certification," the article reads. "The failure to take the test led to the conclusion that the Youngstown State 'failed to monitor the football program,'" the article details.

Pelini was fired from LSU for poor performance back in December.