NCAA puts Mississippi State on 3 years’ probation after tutor allegedly did athletes’ work online

Published 1:29 pm Friday, August 23, 2019

Mississippi State has received three years’ probation from the NCAA after an investigation determined a part-time student tutor completed coursework for 10 football players and one men’s basketball player in an online class.

Penalties include vacating an unspecified number of wins from the 2018 football season and the 2018-19 men’s basketball season. Mississippi State also will have 10 football players miss eight games in the upcoming season.

The Bulldogs lose one scholarship for the 2020-21 basketball season and two scholarships for both the 2021 and 2022 football seasons. The former tutor involved received a 10-year show cause penalty.

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Neither the football program nor the men’s basketball program received a postseason ban.

Athletic director John Cohen said in a statement that “we take full responsibility for these actions.” Cohen added that “our staff at Mississippi State was proactive in our preventative measures, quick to respond and worked in full cooperation with the NCAA enforcement staff.”