NCAA investigation into Florida is a serious joke

News broke last week that the NCAA is investigating Florida’s football program, probably over NIL violations that might have occurred in the fruitless pursuit of quarterback Jaden Rashada.

I’ve been trying to come up with a one-word description of the situation. “Picayune” came to mind since it means narrow and petty. But it also means trivial and unimportant.

This is serious business, so another word should do the trick:

Joke.

If you know about NIL, you had to double over when you heard NCAA sleuths were at it again. That doesn’t mean Florida didn’t break any rules. It means the NCAA guidebook is laughably detached from reality.

I challenge you to read these rules and not crack up.

“A booster or collection of boosters is not permitted to engage in recruiting activities, including recruiting conversations. When a booster’s interaction with a PSA (potential student-athlete) includes encouraging the PSA to attend an institution, NCAA rules have been violated.”

Or…

“NIL compensation may not be contingent upon enrollment at a particular school. In addition, NIL compensation may not be contingent upon residency in a certain location simply to circumvent this standard.”

That’s a pertinent one we’ll return to in a minute. For now, merely ponder what sort of parallel universe the NCAA is living in.

Does it really think booster collectives never engage in “recruiting conversations” or encourage recruits to attend a certain institution?

My guess is Tennessee’s collective did not give Nico Iamaleava an $8 million NIL deal to encourage the young QB to attend Georgia.

According to the NCAA, coaches and school staff members cannot have concrete conversations with collectives about a recruit’s value or facilitate any contact between the player and the collective.

Yeah, right.

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Ohio State’s collective reportedly spent $10 million in the transfer portal the past few weeks. I’m sure there were no meaningful money conversations between Ryan Day, the Buckeyes’ collective and the newly minted millionaires.

Just as I’m sure there are no off-the-record negotiations between Notre Dame and whichever All-ACC quarterback it annually poaches.

And you know what? Good for the Irish, the Buckeyes, the Volunteers, etc., etc. etc.

Pay For Play is now the name of the college game. Years of NCAA shortsightedness have produced a bizarro world in which it’s okay for a player to get $100,000 a month, but it’s illegal for an athletic department intern to give a recruit a collective’s phone number.

In a futile attempt to tame the monster it created, the NCAA has begun enforcing inconsequential rules about “inducements.” It’s sort of like Al Capone getting nailed for income tax evasion, not the 200-plus murders he ordered. (Though to stretch the analogy, murder would now be legal in the NIL world).

The NCAA slapped FSU with Level II sanctions two weeks ago. The penalties include two years of probation and scholarship reductions.

Offensive coordinator Alex Atkins drove a prospect to meet a member of the school’s NIL collective. The violation wasn’t that kid was being offered $15,000 a month. It was that a staff member “facilitated” the meeting.

Atkins’ real crimes were being sloppy with the trivial rules and denying it to investigators. We don’t know what Florida will be accused of doing. We do know Rashada’s recruitment was a Level I fiasco.

Amid the turmoil, I don’t doubt that a school staffer phoned a booster to discuss money, or a collective rep strayed from the Maintain Deniability Playbook when talking to Rashada’s father.

To be clear, it could be much more than that. Maybe the NCAA thinks Billy Napier had a stack of 13.8 million $1 bills on his office desk when Rashada visited.

That’s what the aborted contract was worth. An out was the stipulation Rashada had to live in Gainesville, as opposed to the aforementioned "contingent upon enrollment." Interestingly, the NCAA amended its guidelines last summer, saying that NIL contracts also can’t be contingent on residency.

Maybe it will make that ruling retroactive to January 2023. It would certainly fit the ad hoc approach the NCAA has taken when it comes to NIL.

For now, all we can do is sit back, theorize and watch UF squirm. Saying “Everybody else is doing it” is not an excuse or a defense.

But all big-time schools are inducing, facilitating and interacting. Cracking down on the trivial details is a joke.

It seems everybody’s in on it except the NCAA.

David Whitley is The Gainesville Sun's sports columnist. Contact him at dwhitley@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidEWhitley