On Tuesday, the NCAA officially placed USC on a one-year probation and fined the Trojans $50,000 for coaching violations. According to the NCAA’s ruling, USC had 8 analysts engaging in on and off-field coaching duties during the 2022 calendar year and the spring of 2023.
As a result of those activities, USC exceeded the number of permissible countable coaches by 6 over 2 academic years. Along with probation and a fine, USC received restrictions on their analysts for the 2024-25 season.
Lincoln Riley was found to have violated head coach responsibility rules. However, it was determined that some of the violations pre-dated a rule change and Riley fostered an atmosphere of compliance.
Because of those distinctions, Riley avoided a personal suspension. Here is a snippet of the NCAA’s explanation:
Head coaches are presumed responsible for the actions of their staff, and as a result, Riley violated head coach responsibility rules. In this case, however, some of the violations occurred before rules changes effective in January 2023 that shifted head coach responsibility rules from a rebuttable presumption to automatic attachment. Because Riley was not personally involved in the violations and demonstrated that he promoted an atmosphere of compliance and monitored his staff, Riley rebutted his presumed responsibility for the violations occurring before the rules change. For the same reasons, the parties also agreed that a suspension penalty for Riley was not appropriate.
