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The Alabama athletic department has admitted to a series of hilarious NCAA violations across a variety of sports programs. Those transgressions involved swimming/diving, baseball, gymnastics, rowing, soccer, and golf, with swimming and diving being hit with a number of infractions.
Now, the Crimson Tide are no strangers to rule breaking and controversy. Heck, Nick Saban admitted to as much in his recent retirement.
Many consider the Tide the ultimate cheaters, though that often comes with unrivaled success.
A quick look back at recent history shows the football team was on probation just before Saban took over, missing a pair of bowl game opportunities as a result of recruiting no-nos.
Both men’s basketball and football later received another probationary period in 2009 for providing student-athletes with impermissible benefits, alongside 14 other Alabama sports teams.
The majority of those past infractions were more serious in nature, though the introduction of NIL has drastically changed what’s now legal.
This latest round of violations is far less severe – and in some cases, almost laughable!
Alabama self-reports NCAA rule breaking
Barrett Sallee provided his followers a snapshot of those infractions with a post on X.
Some of the funnier mishaps are listed below:
- Men’s golf non-athletic staff member attended two meals where recruits were present
- Men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs held year-end banquet on a required day off
- Swimming and diving coaches “mistakenly” paid for transfer recruit’s meal, valued at $32
Most other violations involved impermissible contact with recruit though none seemed like an egregious abuse of power.
Fans jokingly replied online.
“Death penalty!”
“$32 on a recruit’s meal. Nice of the swimming coach to take the recruit to the finest restaurant in Tuscaloosa.”
“Banquet on an off day? Straight to jail.”
“NCAA: What about football and basketball?… Bama: Best I can do is rowing.”
“This is the real reason why Nick Saban retired.”
Alabama will likely receive a slap on the wrist for the 11 violations – which give insight to some of the silliness that still occurs in NCAA Compliance.