Chris Young will not return as the women’s tennis coach at Oklahoma State. The Cowgirls won their first indoor national championship in program history as recently as 2024 and reached the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Tournament earlier this year.
He was fired for tampering.
Young was hired in 2003. Oklahoma State women’s tennis finished with an overall record of 291-120 during his time with the program. They were consistently in the mix for a national title over the last decade+ with NCAA Tournament appearances every year since 2012, including a run to at least the Round of 16 in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2024 and 2025. The Cowgirls finished as the national runners up in 2026. They won the ITA Indoor National Championship for the first time just two years ago.
So what happened? Oklahoma State wouldn’t’ve let Chris Young go if not for the NCAA.
Even though tampering exists at almost every single program on every single level in this modern era of college sports, especially football and basketball, the governing body decided to go after the women’s tennis team in Stillwater. That is where it decided to exhaust its time, money and resources on an investigation. Women’s tennis.
The NCAA ultimately found Young guilty of tampering. He also refused to cooperate, failed to produce electronic communications and instructed a student-athlete to withhold information. Those three things elevated the case beyond the initial findings. Young made contact with at least three transfer prospects before they officially entered the transfer portal and used his own student-athletes to relay information to other student-athletes at different schools on his behalf.
As a result of its investigation, the NCAA placed the Cowgirls on three years of probation. They were also fined $35,000 and 1% of the women’s tennis program’s operating budget, as well as recruiting restrictions. Chris Young in specific was slapped with the following punishments:
- A four-year show-cause order, prohibiting him from communicating with prospective transfers in December during each year of the order.
- An additional five-week prohibition on communicating with all prospective student-athletes and off-campus recruiting activities during the second year of the show-cause order.
- Suspension from two regular-season contests during the 2025-26 season, in addition to the 10 contests already suspended by the school (totaling approximately 50% of the regular season).
Oklahoma State ultimately decided enough is enough. It chose to cut ties with its head coach. Young is out. Assistant coach Henner Nehles will serve as the interim.
Meanwhile, tampering continues to run rampant in other sports. The NCAA only seems to care about women’s tennis…