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UConn football coach Jim Mora Jr. sent an ominous message to other coaches after one of his best players re-entered the transfer portal on Monday.
“A simple note to the schools and coaches that have blatantly broken [NCAA] rules by tampering with our players in the last 24 hours,” Mora started his note.
The coach was aggravated after star defensive lineman Pryce Yates went back in the portal. Yates had entered the portal earlier in December and then said on Dec. 21 that he was returning to Storrs. Mora accused other coaches of illegally contacting his players and said he would report them.
“We do know who you are, we will pursue all avenues to hold you accountable,” he wrote. “We are excited that we’ve built a program where coaches have to cheat to beat us and we will protect that program. Think hard before you tamper with our players.”
A federal consent decree agreed to earlier this year means that the NCAA may not restrict players’ right to transfer. The settlement between the NCAA and Justice Department came after a federal judge temporarily blocked all transfer restrictions in December of last year.
But some NCAA restrictions on coaches and schools remain.
In theory, coaches and staffers are not allowed to contact players on other teams until those players enter the transfer portal, which opened this year from Dec. 9 to Dec. 28, with extensions for teams like UConn playing in later bowls.
In practice, tampering is rampant, and coaches have complained to the media about it every winter in the portal era. Mora is only the latest to threaten to snitch on his coaching brethren, but enforcement has been spotty at best.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart explained the slippery nature of defining tampering last year.
“So look, if kids are exploring to leave, it’s really hard to police. Ask the NCAA,” Smart told the Associated Press. “If a kid goes to his trainer or high school coach, well, in our program we have people talking to those trainers and high school coaches. Word of mouth spreads that a guy’s not happy and he’s looking. Next thing you know he’s in the portal and he’s already got somewhere that he wants to go.”
In a follow-up post, Mora said he had no issues with players’ rights to pick a school and get paid; he was only annoyed by coaches breaking the rules.
“Not sure how we fix it, I do know we don’t ignore it,” he wrote. “I’m 100% for the Portal and NIL/Rev Share. I’m 100% against grown men cheating the rules and teaching players horrible Life lessons.”
In a rare case of an investigation and penalty, the NCAA announced tampering violations by Southern Utah in May. The Thunderbirds are an FCS team, and head coach DeLane Fitzgerald received a slap on the wrist for illegally calling and texting two players.
SUU’s football team was put on one year of NCAA probation, and Fitzgerald was suspended for one game. He was also put on a two-year show-cause order—making it harder for other programs to hire him—and hit with a slew of minor recruiting restrictions.
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