Kentucky has reached an agreement with NCAA enforcement staff on impermissible benefits that occurred in the football program and rules violations involving countable athletically related activities that occurred within the swimming program, as well as the appropriate penalties for those violations. Kentucky agreed that the violations in the swimming program supported findings of a failure to monitor and head coach responsibility violations. A Committee on Infractions panel has approved the agreement. One former coach did not participate in the agreement, and that portion of the case will be considered separately by the Committee on Infractions, after which the committee will release its full decision.
The agreed-upon violations involve at least 11 football student-athletes receiving payment for work not performed between spring 2021 and March 2022. Eight of the student-athletes went on to compete and receive actual and necessary expenses while ineligible. The enforcement staff and school agreed that no staff member in the athletics department knew or reasonably should have known about the payment for work not performed, and thus the violations involving the football program did not provide additional support for the agreed-upon failure-to-monitor violation.
Additional agreed-upon violations involve the men's and women's swimming program exceeding limits on countable athletically related activities when student-athletes were not provided with required days off and exceeded practice hours for nearly three years.
The school agreed that it failed to monitor its swimming and diving program and that the underlying violations demonstrated a head coach responsibility violation.
The committee will not discuss further details of the case to protect the integrity of the ongoing process, as the committee's final decision — including potential violations and penalties for the former coach — is pending.
By separating the cases, the Division I Committee on Infractions publicly acknowledges the infractions case and permits the school to immediately begin serving penalties while awaiting the committee's final decision on the remaining contested portion of the case. That decision will include any findings and penalties for the former coach.
The agreed-upon penalties in this case include two years of probation for the school, a fine and vacation of records of any games in which football student-athletes competed while ineligible, in alignment with the Level II-standard classification for the school.
