The Josh Innes Show - Absurdity Of NCAA Sanctions

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

Michigan State football is being punished for improper benefits violations that occurred a few years ago. How are we punishing programs for this when we are promoting athletes being paid? It's absurd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right. Let's see here. So the Michigan State football team is now on, they've been issued some sanctions and some probations and they had some windstripped because of some money they were paying to recruits, I guess, a couple years ago, which is wild to me because let me make sure I'm doing this here. Michigan State football. Let's see this actual story. Because I want the details of what they actually did that got them these violations, which is really absurd when you think about. the world we're in in college football right now. But let me play a couple commercials, and let's get into this. It's about the Mel Tucker era of Michigan State football. And let us not forget that Mel Tucker got fired from his job for allegedly jerking off on a phone call with someone who worked in the athletic department or was a doctor or something. And allegedly, according to her, just started randomly cranking one out on the phone with her. He's like, well, I thought we had a good relationship, do we not?

But let's play a couple commercials, and then we will get into it. Mind you, this is not some big Michigan State podcast that I'm doing here. I just find the idea to be very intriguing that Mel Tucker has got Michigan State on probation. He's not there anymore. He jerked off on the phone. It cost him $90 million when he was jerking off on the phone. So let's see here. So an investigation spanning more than two years resulted in Michigan State football being hit with NCAA sanctions for recruiting violations under former coach Mel Tucker.

Tucker. Remember, that deal he got was absurd. You saw that Mel Tucker got paid all this cash at Michigan State, and you're like, okay. And then he sucked as a coach. But a 39-page report detailing findings of the investigation was released by the NCAA, which determined Tucker's general manager, Saheed Khalif and pass-rush specialist, Brandon Jordan, which is fascinating to me that college programs now have general managers and pass-rush specialists, knowingly provided impermissible recruiting inducements in connection with prospective student athletes on official visits. Additional details from the report. From October 2021 through March 2023,

Khalif, Jordan, other football staff members offered or spent about $11,000 in impermissible recruiting inducements for six recruits, including paying for airfare and hotel rooms for players and individuals accompanying. Again, who cares? We're paying dudes now. Like, dudes are getting paid to play college football. They're getting these big NIL deals. Losers. Like, I say losers.

That's not fair. But, like, dudes who are bums on these teams. I guess that's more fair. Like, they're dudes getting paid hundreds of thousand dollars that don't do a fucking thing. Garrett Nussmeyer is making seven figures to play at LSU. And Garrett Nussmeier got benched for this Van Buren kid. This Van Buren kid, who, by the way, is getting paid allegedly, according to my buddy, Matt, is getting paid half a million dollars to be the backup quarterback at LSU.

Dude, got benched. For Michael Van Buren, who is making half a million dollars to, if things would have gone well for LSU, this Van Buren would have never seen the field. He was getting paid half a million dollars. Think about that. And we're bitching about a guy spending $10,000, $11,000 on airfare and hotel rooms. Come on, man. But NCAA rules prohibit schools from footing the bill for unofficial visits, making it a level one violation. That is absurd.

Everything about that's absurd. Just think about how stupid that is. Like dudes are now getting paid six figures, seven figures to be nobody's on a team, and you're going to have a problem with a dude paying $11,000 to pay for someone's flight? My God. Let's see, Khalif in January 2022 coordinated approximately 3,075 and impermissible recruiting benefits through one-way playing tickets to three players, two transfers and a freshman to enroll at Michigan State and round-trip tickets for their family members.

That was also ruled a level one violation, and those three players who the NCAA deemed in eligible appeared in 26 games for the Spartans, leading to vacating wins from 2022 to 2024, which is also stupid. The games happened. So the fact that you vacate these wins is stupid. That's actually what happened to Les Miles. Les Miles had to have some wins vacated and it put him below a certain threshold to be eligible for the Hall of Fame, which again is stupid. I would guess because he won a national championship and went to another and won a whole hell of a lot of games at LSU. Les Miles would have ended up being a Hall of Famer in college football, but technically he can't because he didn't win the certain number of games you needed

to win to be even considered for the Hall of Fame, which I also find interesting that like the, I guess it's the college football Hall of Fame, determines that like a coach has to hit a certain number of wins to even be considered, which is fascinating. I think that's the criteria, at least last I saw. Can you imagine if in baseball, they were like, listen, if you don't get 3,000 hits, you ain't a Hall of Fame. You know, imagine if they're like, hey, listen, if you don't get to at least 2,500 hits, you're not a Hall of Famer. That'd be interesting or you don't get to 500 home runs or whatever let's see caliph in january 22 we said that caliph offered to pay for a recruits family vacation so they wouldn't take an

official visit to other schools he also paid prospects trainer seven hundred dollars to attend to visit with the player like again who cares right but one like the fact that this is the kind of stuff that gets you put on probation in today's era of college football where dudes are all getting paid it really is mind blowing that that's where we are right now Let's see. Let's see. That's the wrong story. Let me go back.

There we go. Let's see. Tucker was slapped with a three-year show cause order, effectively preventing him from being hired by another school. After a separate hearing process with the NCAA, the COI report found Tucker could not demonstrate that he promoted an atmosphere of compliance and monitor staff with multiple staff members were involved in violations over a sustained period of time. And Khalif and Jordan engaged in intentional violations. of well-known recruiting legislations. Moreover, the case record did not demonstrate that Tucker proactively looked at Redfly.

Like, come on, man. Like, this is the big issue. The guy was on the phone jerking off with somebody, and you're worried about some guy getting paid $700 to come on a recruiting visit. It is stupid. A former Michigan State Assistant said Tucker was adamant about getting prospects on campus for unofficial visits before an official and told staff if they had a problem with getting a player to East Lansing.

panic, go to Khalif, and he'll take care of everything. Tucker denied saying that. A former assistant coach said he didn't question how unofficial visits were paid for or raised the issue with Tucker, who, quote, was never just available like that. You go through springtime and there were times we didn't see Coach Tucker for two weeks, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So those are the things. That's how this works now. You pay some guy $3,000 to come to campus for a visit and all of a sudden it's sanctions and your program is dead.

Now, I just think that's stupid. And I think we should be in a world where you could retroactively go back and be unpunished. Like, if you can take away wins from games that we all saw happen, you should be able to retroactively go back in time and undo sanctions from people because now we're in an era where things are legal. Like, let's say you killed somebody. And then, like, you know, five years later, they decided, you know what, murder's totally legal. Then you should be able to get out of jail and be like, hey, it's legal now. So I should get out of jail. I'm a big believer in that, actually.

I think that's the way that should work. That whole system should work that way. If you decide that something is now legal, like pot, you see it with pot, pot's a great example. Like all these places where it's legal to smoke pot, legal to grow pot, legal to sell it, there have been people whose lives were ruined over pot back when it was illegal, sports betting the same thing. Like, you should be able to go back and retroactively fix things that are now legal, especially like minor shit, like pot or minor shit, like paying a grand for some. recruit to come to campus. The fact that you're put on probation and you lose scholarships

and vacate wins over the fact that some guy got paid to visit your campus in an era where even shitty players are getting paid six figures is preposterous. It is dumb. But what was the actual detail of the story with, let's see, with Tucker, Mel Tucker. The details of what he actually did was great. So let's see here. Let's see. Allegations. Brenda Trace an advocate against, oh, that was the story. So the woman was an advocate against sexual assault, and she accused Tucker of sexual harassment, including masturbating during a phone call in April 2022 after a professional relationship developed. That was the story, okay? Tucker admitted to the behavior, but claimed it was consensual. So he said, hey, I was jerking off on the phone,

but she wanted it. The university suspended him without paying, eventually fired him for cause after a hearing officer found he violated the school's sexual misconduct policy. So, yeah, they were able to get out of that $90 million buyout for this guy, who they overpaid greatly anyway. He sucked as a coach. That team sucked. He was overrated as a coach. They paid him like $100 million to coach, and he sucked.

Let's see. Tucker's lawsuit in July 2024, Tucker filed a lawsuit against Michigan State for wrongful termination, breach of contract, racial discrimination. Because, of course, they went after you because you were the black guy jerking off on the phone with the lady who's an advocate against sex. sexual assault. Let's see, according to ESPN, blah, blah, blah, he is seeking compensation for damages, including lost future earnings, other penalties. It's reported that Michigan State will vacate wins as part of a separate unrelated thing, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

So that is the idea there that somehow Mel Tucker, let's see, what does this story say? Michigan State's NCAA case looks more like a setup to get Mel Tucker than an investigation. Ask Tennessee. Let's see. The latest ruling on Michigan State football reeks of strategy, not fairness, and it's hard to not see how it benefits the school and it's Mel Tucker about. Okay, so that's from Outkick. I would agree with that.

At least the thing about the recruiting stuff, not the, you know, jerking off on the phone of it all. Because, again, I don't think any of this stuff really even matters. Let's see. Anywho, that's the latest on that story. So I agree. Like reading the story, let's see, Mel Tucker filed 75-page lawsuit against school and proper sham investigation, blah, blah, blah. And look, they clearly wanted to get out of it. It's like what LSU is doing right now.

LSU is trying to dig up anything LSU can dig up to get out of their deal with Brian Kelly. So I guarantee you they were totally fine with dumping Mel Tucker because they were able to do so without having to pay him. And that's why the guy is suing right now. And it's a very similar situation. So let's see. Anyway, but all these recruiting violations, all this kind of stuff, the pain for players and stuff to come to campus and everything like that is stupid. Let's see. So when the NCAA decided to punish former head coach Mel Tucker along with staffers with show cause penalties for the infractions, it reminded me of Tennessee's case with the NCAA.

I don't really care of getting all that deep into this. But anyhow, that's the latest on that story. I'm fascinated by it. I'm fascinated by the idea that Mel Tucker, that this whole thing is still going, that he's suing them. But my biggest takeaway from all of this is that these programs and the NCAA are still punishing people for shit involving recruiting and money. It is absurd to me. But anyway, more to come.