Jon Duncan, the NCAA’s vice president of enforcement, announced in a memo sent to NCAA schools that the Division I Board of Directors has informed its staff to “pursue significant penalties” against tampering offenders along with publicly identifying those found guilty of wrongdoing, according to Yahoo Sports.
Duncan wrote in the memo that the NCAA is working closely with Geoff Means, the chair of the Division I Board of Directors Infractions Process Committee, to quickly address violations.
“It is our sincerest hope that these potential policy and rules changes will better serve the new era of Division I while balancing fairness and efficiency to meet membership expectations,” the memo said, according to the report.
Within the memo, the process includes “streamlining various stages of an investigation, collecting information from schools or student-athletes more quickly, conducting interviews on a shorter schedule and/or limiting extension requests often made by parties in infractions cases.”
This heavy-handed announcement from the NCAA comes after Clemson coach Dabo Swinney accused Ole Miss and Pete Golding of tampering transfer portal signee Luke Ferrelli. Ferrelli re-entered the transfer portal and committed to Ole Miss after initially landing at Clemson.
“We have a broken system, and if there are no consequences for tampering, then we have no rules and we have no governance,” Swinney said last month.
Within a screenshot of the memo posted on social media, Duncan identified tampering as falling under the label of “communications of any kind are not permitted with a student-athlete at another school — or any other representatives of their interests, including agents — before that student-athlete entered the NCAA transfer portal.”
Swinney said he previously warned the Rebels that he would blow the whistle on what he considered under-the-table recruiting if Golding and Ole Miss failed to back off the former California linebacker, who signed with Clemson on Jan. 7 and moved from the West Coast to South Carolina four days later.
Swinney alleged that Golding texted Ferrelli a photo of a “$1 million contract” and asked about his buyout at Clemson.
Previously, Golding and Ole Miss pointed fingers elsewhere and were concerned over tampering during the College Football Playoff with fear former Rebels coach Lane Kiffin was targeting players to join him at LSU. Numerous Ole Miss players left for LSU even after reportedly signing rev-share contracts, including pass-rusher Princewill Umanmielen.
These are not the only instances of tampering allegations since the end of college football’s 2025 season, though certainly the most public.