NCAA upholds ruling on LSU football probation, recruiting visit limit
By: Koki Riley - Lafayette Daily Advertiser - Yahoo! SportsBATON ROUGE – The NCAA Division I Infractions Appeals Committee upheld a decision from last September regarding former LSU offensive line coach James Cregg on Wednesday.
On Sept. 22, 2022, NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions panel found that Cregg and an unnamed former assistant director of recruiting had broken recruiting rules during the COVID-19 recruiting dead period after they had met with a recruit and "provided the prospect with impermissible recruiting inducements."
The committee then ruled that LSU would be limited to 55 official recruiting visits during the 2022-23 academic year, be on one-year probation and pay a $5,000 self-imposed fine, among other penalties.
Cregg appealed the NCAA's ruling after also getting handed a three-year show-cause penalty.
In August 2021, Cregg filed a lawsuit against LSU, alleging that the university fired him on June 2, 2021, "for a cause that did not exist," his attorneys Chris Whittington and Robb Campbell told The Advertiser in August 2022.
LSU had been ordered by a Baton Rouge judge to pay Cregg $492,945.20 after he had been let go by the university. LSU then appealed the decision, a stance that was only fortified after the NCAA's ruling last September.
"We will pursue all legal options available to us including appealing. Today’s decision by the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions affirms LSU’s response to the allegations arising out of Coach Cregg’s conduct," LSU wrote in a statement last Thursday. "Coach Cregg admitted under oath that he contacted and provided athletic gear to a recruit after being warned by compliance staff of the COVID-based no-contact period with recruits. This type of intentional and knowing conduct was charged as a Level II violation by NCAA enforcement staff, and the NCAA Committee on Infractions concluded it was a Level II-aggravated violation for Coach Cregg and constitutes a Level II-mitigated violation for LSU. The university was given credit for responding promptly in terminating Cregg and self-imposing penalties, which the committee accepted. We believe this decision fully supports the hard work of our athletics compliance staff and our decision regarding this coach."
The money LSU owed to Cregg is from his remaining salary with the university from June 17, 2021, to March 31, 2022. That owed money does not include an eight-day stretch in February and all of March 2022 in which the San Francisco 49ers, where he is currently employed as the team's assistant offensive line coach, covered his compensation.
Cregg was the Tigers' offensive line coach for three seasons, leading the Tigers to the Joe Moore Award for the nation's best offensive line during the 2019 national championship season. His replacement was former Arkansas offensive line coach Brad Davis, who is still the Tigers' offensive line coach.
