Florida State is petitioning the NCAA for reduced penalties levied on the school for NIL rule violations related to football recruiting efforts that took place in spring 2022, according to Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger.
The penalties, as announced by the NCAA in January, included a fine as well as a reduction in scholarships, official visits and recruiting communications.
In a three-page letter to the NCAA D-I Committee on Infractions, a law firm representing FSU petitioned the NCAA to reconsider these penalties as well as a three-year disassociation from a booster, Dellenger reported.
FSU has agreed to other parts of the negotiated penalty, including a three-game suspension for the involved assistant coach, Dellenger noted.
The school is arguing that the program has been unjustly impacted by their case taking place a month-and-a-half before the NCAA announced in March it would pause all investigations into collective deals.
That pause followed a federal judge decision to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the NCAA from enforcing NIL rules in Tennessee and Virginia.
FSU argued that disassociation from the collective and booster "cannot be enforced by FSU or the NCAA at this time" due to the judge's decision, according to the letter obtained by Dellenger.
"FSU should not be the only institution penalized simply because it was first in the queue, the violations for which it is responsible were more limited, and it cooperated fully to resolve the case," FSU's representatives wrote.
The rule violation initially occurred when FSU offered a player in the transfer portal an NIL opportunity "as a recruiting inducement," according to the NCAA.
The NCAA said it then levied penalties on the assistant coach who drove the prospect to the meeting, the booster who met with the recruit, the NIL collective that offered the opportunity and the FSU football program as whole.
These penalties marked the first time the NCAA attempted to stop a school and NIL collective from collaborating as a penalty for rule infractions, according to ESPN's Dan Murphy.
FSU's pushback against the NCAA's penalties comes as the future of the organization's enforcement of NIL rules remains in flux. Murphy and Pete Thamel reported for ESPN that the NCAA is currently considering a multibillion-dollar antitrust settlement of several pending NIL cases that could reshape how schools share revenue with student-athletes.
