While the USC Trojans continue to seek their elusive sixth win to capture bowl eligibility for the 2024 season, the program received bad news on Tuesday.
The NCAA announced that USC would be fined and placed on probation for one year due to rules violations committed during the 2022 and 2023 football seasons.
“Violations occurred in the Southern California football program when the program exceeded the allowable number of coaches over two academic years, according to an agreement released by the Division I Committee on Infractions. As a result of the violations, the parties also agreed that football head coach Lincoln Riley violated head coach responsibility rules.
The school and the enforcement staff agreed that the violations in this case occurred when eight analysts for the football program engaged in on- and off-field coaching activities during spring 2022, fall 2022 and spring 2023, resulting in the football program exceeding the permissible number of countable coaches by six for two academic years,” the NCAA said Tuesday in a release.
However, since some of the violations occurred before a 2023 rule change, meaning head coaches are responsible for their entire staff, the release noted that head coach Lincoln Riley will not face any additional discipline.
In total, USC’s penalties include a $50,000 fine, a year of probation, and various minor losses of coaching hours over two weeks in the 2024-25 season.
The NCAA also noted that USC ‘promptly investigated the violations when notified and worked collaboratively with the enforcement staff to resolve the case,’ which can sometimes lead to a lighter penalty.
USC returns from its bye week and hosts the Nebraska Cornhuskers on November 16.
[NCAA]
