A negotiated settlement in an NCAA infractions case has been made with Florida Gulf Coast University.
The negotiated resolution, announced Friday, stems from an infractions case from July 2023 to May 2024 within the university's men's tennis program.
The penalties levied by the NCAA against FGCU in the case include a $25,000 fine; the men's tennis program was prohibited from recruitment efforts January 6-21, 2025; the issuance of a two-year probation; and vacation of selected team contests.
The NCAA report outlined the case against FGCU: "Violations occurred at Florida Gulf Coast when former men’s tennis head coach Davidson Kozlowski and his staff conducted impermissible tryouts with prospects and provided impermissible benefits and recruiting inducements. The violations occurred from July 2023 through May 2024. Separate from the men’s tennis violations, the school and enforcement staff agree that beginning in the 2022-23 academic year and continuing through the spring of 2024, Florida Gulf Coast improperly certified 18 student-athletes in 10 sports, resulting in 18 violations of initial eligibility, amateurism, seasons of competition and/or transfer eligibility legislation. Those student-athletes then received expenses from and/or competed for the school when they were ineligible or not certified."
FGCU fired Kozlowski earlier this year after he was placed on administrative leave and suspended with pay during the NCAA investigation.
The university has scheduled a media briefing on the case at 3 p.m. Friday.
A statement from FGCU said the university worked alongside the NCAA to resolve the case.
"... the university took it upon itself to conduct a comprehensive review of student-athlete certification for the entire Athletics program – a process that revealed 18 irregularities across 10 sports in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years," FGCU's statement read.
NCAA report
FGCU said that the certification errors involved were immediately reported to the NCAA and over the past 16 months the university worked with the NCAA to resolve the irregularities, which were consolidated into one negotiated resolution.
The university's statement also said that the employees who were responsible for the errors are no longer associated with the university, and FGCU implemented new procedures and established additional checks and balances to its compliance process to prevent future certification issues.
Due to the immediate actions by FGCU, the infractions were mitigated to Level II violations.
"Leading with integrity and acknowledging past missteps is key to our culture at FGCU. I assure you that our coaches, staff and administration are fully committed to ensuring we operate in compliance in all that we do," said FGCU's Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Colin Hargis. "I am grateful to our staff and leaders across campus who have taken immediate, corrective action and worked diligently and in full cooperation with the NCAA to resolve these concerns.
CASE SUMMARY
Florida Gulf Coast former men’s tennis head coach violated recruiting rules and provided impermissible benefits to recruits. Violations occurred at Florida Gulf Coast when former men’s tennis head coach Davidson Kozlowski and his staff conducted impermissible tryouts with prospects and provided impermissible benefits and recruiting inducements. The violations occurred from July 2023 through May 2024.
According to a decision released by the Division I Committee on Infractions panel, Kozlowski’s involvement violated head coach responsibility rules. Florida Gulf Coast resolved its case through negotiated resolution.
From August through November 2023, Kozlowski conducted impermissible tryouts with five men’s tennis recruits. The degree of the recruits’ participation varied, with one recruit participating in all team practices during the team’s regularly scheduled times.
Kozlowski provided approximately $436 in impermissible recruiting inducements to three of those recruits, one of whom later competed for Florida Gulf Coast while ineligible. Additionally, between July and November 2023, Kozlowski had approximately 20 impermissible communications with eight men’s tennis student-athletes from another school.
Kozlowski initiated phone calls with these eight student-athletes who were not in the NCAA Transfer Portal, and he discussed transferring to Florida Gulf Coast University with each student-athlete on at least one occasion. Kozlowski also arranged for and provided impermissible recruiting inducements in the form of rental car reimbursement, two meals and one night lodging to a prospect.
He additionally provided impermissible benefits in the form of tournament registration fees and/or hotel rooms to seven men’s tennis student-athletes.
Kozlowski also used a total of $1,280 of his personal funds to pay the registration fees for five men’s tennis student athletes and hotel room costs for seven men’s tennis student-athletes to participate in a weekly tennis tournament in Boca Raton, Florida.
As a result of the impermissible benefits, six men’s tennis student-athletes competed in 20 dates of competition while ineligible.
Separate from the men’s tennis violations, the school and enforcement staff agree that beginning in the 2022-23 academic year and continuing through the spring of 2024, Florida Gulf Coast improperly certified 18 student-athletes in 10 sports, resulting in 18 violations of initial eligibility, amateurism, seasons of competition and/or transfer eligibility legislation. Those student-athletes then received expenses from and/or competed for the school when they were ineligible or not certified.
The school, Kozlowski and the enforcement staff agreed that all violations are Level II.
The following penalties apply: • Two years of probation. • Reduction of unofficial visits, recruiting communications and off-campus recruiting in January 2025. • A $25,000 fine. • Vacation of team and individual records over the course of the 11 months in which the ineligible players competed. • A one-year show-cause order that includes a 30% suspension from regular-season contests for Kozlowski. Members of the Committee on Infractions are drawn from the NCAA membership and public.
The panel members who reviewed this case are: • Norman C. Bay, attorney, chief hearing officer. • Rich Ensor, former commissioner of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. • Vince Nicastro, deputy commissioner and chief operating officer of the Big East Conference.
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