LOS ANGELES — USC football has been placed on one year’s probation, the NCAA announced Tuesday, after an investigation found the program violated NCAA rules around analysts engaging in on- and off-field coaching activities in 2022 and 2023.
The investigation, conducted through the NCAA’s Division I Committee on Infractions, found that head coach Lincoln Riley “violated head coach responsibility rules,” the NCAA wrote in a release. Riley, however, will not be subject to any suspension, as the NCAA concluded Riley “was not personally involved in violations nor aware of the violations at the time the infractions occurred.”
The NCAA has also leveled a $50,000 fine against USC, restricted former analysts from practice and film review for a period of six days, and announced USC leveled a self-imposed penalty in the fall of 2023-24 by restricting countable athletic activities by 25 hours.
“Since learning of potential violations related to our football program in May 2023, USC has worked cooperatively with the NCAA enforcement staff and with the Committee on Infractions, as we identified and acknowledged violations, issued corrective measures, and submitted a negotiated resolution in a timely fashion that was approved by the Committee,” USC athletic director Jen Cohen said in a statement.
“We remain committed to upholding the highest standards of ethical behavior and integrity in our athletic programs.”
That May, as the NCAA wrote in a case resolution released Tuesday, the governing body received information that a USC special-teams analyst had “provided instruction” to at least one player during the spring of 2023.
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In subsequent communication between the NCAA’s enforcement staff and USC in following months, the program self-reported that multiple analysts had “exceeded the permissible scope of their job duties,” as analysts were not permitted to engage in on-field coaching activities under NCAA guidelines. Six analysts had provided instruction and participated in on-field instruction in 2022, the NCAA concluded, and four analysts did the same in the spring of 2023.
As such, the NCAA and USC agreed, as written in the case resolution, that USC had exceeded the NCAA’s limit on countable coaches by six “for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 academic years.”
The case has been resolved as “mitigated” by the NCAA, and the resolution notes USC and Riley’s quick and thorough cooperation in the investigation “helped expedite the resolution in this matter.”