On Thursday afternoon, the NCAA announced that Texas A&M football would be placed on probation for one year. 

According to the NCAA Committee on Infractions, the violations took place sometime between January 2018 and February 2019.

The coaches in question are current Tennessee Volunteers RB coach, Jay Graham, and current Texas A&M football coach Jimbo Fisher. Graham was with Fisher and the Aggies during the 2018-2019-time period. In their investigation into the matter, the NCAA determined that Fisher and Graham had impermissible recruiting contact with a prospect. 

The punishments include:

      One year of probation from July 2, 2020 to July 1, 2021.

  • A $5,000 fine.
  • A reduction of football official visits by 17 days during the 2019-20 academic year.
  • An off-campus recruiting ban for the entire A&M staff for all of November 2019, which reduces permissible evaluation days by 19 for the 2019-20 academic year.
  • A seven-day off-campus recruiting ban for the football staff during the spring 2020 recruiting period.
  • A 10-day off-campus recruiting ban for the football staff during the fall 2020 recruiting period.
  • A six-month show-cause penalty for Graham
  • A six-month show-cause penalty for Fisher

Jimbo Fisher released the following statement a short time ago:

"As Texas A&M’s Head Football Coach, I am responsible for promoting and monitoring for NCAA compliance in our program. While I am disappointed in the violations, including an unintended one that resulted from a conversation with a high school athlete, it is still my responsibility to ensure we are adhering to each and every rule.  I am pleased to have this matter completely behind our program and look forward to continuing our efforts to make every aspect of our program one all Aggies can continue to be proud of.

Tennessee athletics also followed up with their own statement:

“During the process of hiring Coach Jay Graham, we were made aware of the circumstances at his previous institution, and we vetted it thoroughly in accordance with NCAA and SEC bylaws,” Tennessee athletics said in a statement. “We established and maintain extremely high confidence in Coach Graham’s commitment to compliance and are proud to have him on our staff.”

According to 24/7 Sports, Texas A&M football finished their 2019 recruiting class ranked #4 overall in the country, and #6 in 2020.  Which is a pretty significant jump considering they were ranked #17 in the 2018 recruiting class.

Its hard not to take this into consideration when looking at the breaking news that came out today....

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