An old University of Wisconsin football a staff member received a six-year show cause penalty and the Michigan State football team canceled 14 games over the past three seasons after an NCAA investigation, with results released on November 12.
One of the vacated wins includes a 2022 victory against Wisconsin, although the Badgers The record will officially remain unchanged.
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Sanctions imposed on MSU included three years of probation for violations committed during Mel Tucker’s tenure as head coach, as well as financial sanctions. The NCAA Committee on Infractions found that MSU “arranged and provided unauthorized recruiting inducements and benefits as well as unofficial visit expenses” and used ineligible players.
All of MSU’s wins over the past three seasons will be vacated. MSU went 5-7 in 2024, 4-8 in 2023 and 5-7 in 2022. MSU did not face Wisconsin in either of the last two seasons, but had a 34-28 victory over the Badgers in 2022, two weeks after Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst was fired.
According to the Detroit Free Press: “The NCAA claims Tucker ‘followed an NFL model for his program,’ directing all off-field operations through his general manager, but ‘failed to adequately oversee his program.'” For this, Tucker received a three-year show cause order, during which he will be suspended 30 percent of the football season during the first season of his new job.
The general manager in question, Saeed Khalif, worked for Wisconsin from 2017-2020 as director of player personnel before Tucker. hired him at MSU. Khalif, along with Brandon Jordan and other members of the football team, are identified as providing more than $10,000 in unauthorized recruiting benefits to six prospects.
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Khalif, who came to UW from Georgia Tech, helped produce some of the highest-rated recruiting classes in UW history.
Khalif received a six-year penalty through 2031, meaning a college football program cannot hire him without demonstrating good reason to do so — otherwise the hiring program faces its own penalties.
Michigan State defeated Wisconsin on October 15, 2022, 34-28 in double overtime, in the second game of interim coach Jim Leonhard’s era following Chryst’s abrupt firing. It was the only game in Leonhard’s first four games as interim coach that the Badgers lost.
The 2022 Badgers went 7-6 overall and 4-5 in conference, records that will remain intact despite the sanctions against MSU.
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Tucker, who also played college football at Wisconsin and graduated in 1995, was fired for off-field allegations during the 2023 season. The university concluded that Tucker sexually harassed Brenda Tracy, an advocate for victims of sexual assault.
Tucker filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against MSU in July 2024, and Tracy sued Tucker and MSU. These cases remain ongoing.
MSU self-reported these recruiting violations to the NCAA in 2023. Khalif’s contract was not renewed for the 2023 season.
This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Michigan State football vacates wins; former UW staffer penalized
