NCAA Puts Mississippi State on Probation After Investigation Into Academic Misconduct
The NCAA has put Mississippi State football and men's basketball on three years of probation after an investigation confirmed that a former student and part-time athletics department tutor committed "academic misconduct in an online general chemistry course" which aided 11 student-athletes. The program was docked a total of four football scholarships over a two-year span (two football scholarships during each of the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years) and one men's basketball scholarship during the 2020-21 season, among other sanctions.
According to the NCAA, 10 football players and one basketball player had work done for them by the same tutor. The tutor completed multiple assignments, took exams and completed "sometimes nearly the entire course" for the group of student-athletes which violates the University and NCAA's academic policies. The former tutor refused to participate in the NCAA's investigation and resolution process.
Eight football student-athletes and the men's basketball student-athlete involved all competed for the Bulldogs while ineligible.
Mississippi State was also slapped with a $5,000 fine, plus 1% each of the football and men's basketball budgets, reductions to recruiting visits and evaluation days, a vacation of records in which any of the 11 student-athletes competed while ineligible and the three-year probation period. A 10-year show-cause order was also given for the former tutor, as was a mandatory disassociation.
