Revisiting most severe punishments in college football history after Michigan saga closes

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Revisiting most severe punishments in college football history after Michigan saga closes

John Leuzzi, USA TODAY NETWORK · USA TODAY Sports

Fri, Aug 15, 2025 ·

11 min read

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The NCAA closed a two-year investigation into the Michigan football program on Aug. 15 with the release of its findings and punishments for the Wolverines ' sign-stealing scandal.

Started in the 2023 college football season, when former Michigan staffer Connor Stalions − who spearheaded the program's in-person scouting operation − the Wolverines had been under investigation by the NCAA and its Committee on Infractions for a considerable amount of time.

Some of the punishments handed down by the NCAA to Michigan included a $50,000 fine and the forfeiture of 2025 and 2026 College Football Playoff revenue sharing; a two-year show-cause order and a one-game suspension for head coach Sherrone Moore in the 2026 season (in addition to two school-imposed games to be served in 2025); and an eight-year show-cause order for Stalions. Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh was additionally given a 10-year show-cause order by the NCAA as the scandal took place during his tenure as the Wolverines' coach. Michigan is appealing the findings.

REQUIRED READING: Michigan football punishment: NCAA suspends Sherrone Moore, show-cause for Connor Stalions

What the laundry list of penalties didn't include was a postseason ban for the Wolverines, nor their 2023 national championship trophy being vacated by the NCAA. The no-postseason ban has caused quite a reaction in college football, given the NCAA's report mentioned the Wolverines' case had grounds for one. Michigan was referenced as a repeated violator in the Harbaugh era, and bans have been handed out by the NCAA in the past for other investigations in college football.

Michigan football punishment for sign-stealing scandal

Here's a full breakdown of the punishments handed out by the NCAA to Michigan on Friday for the sign-stealing scandal:

Most severe punishments in college football history

SMU death penalty

The most notorious punishment that the NCAA has handed out is the aptly named death penalty to SMU in 1987, which caused the cancellation of the entire season, because it was a repeat violator of a major NCAA violation — paying recruits to come play at SMU — in a span of five years.

Previously reported by USA TODAY , what sparked the NCAA's investigation into SMU was its historic win over No. 2 Texas in 1980, a win that ended a 13-game losing skid to the Longhorns for the Mustangs. In 1985, SMU was first hit with a two-year bowl probation and lost 45 scholarships during that same span for its recruiting violations.

Former Mustang David Stanley, who was kicked off the team and lost his scholarship, then disclosed to a local news station that he and his family received payments from SMU in an interview and this allowed the NCAA to catch SMU.

Given the severity of the case, here's a full list of penalties SMU was handed:

No off-campus recruiting until August 1988, no paid visits made to campus until start of 1988-89 school year;
1987 season canceled; only conditioning drills permitted in that calendar year;
All home games in 1988 canceled, but were able to play scheduled away games;
Existing probation extended to 1990 and ban from bowl games and live television extended to 1989;
55 new scholarship positions over four years were eliminated;
Further punishment was promised if previously banned boosters had contact with the program.; and
Only allowed five full-time assistant coaches instead of the usual nine

The NCAA's death penalty has not been implemented to a football program since, and has only been considered in extreme cases.

REQUIRED READING: Why didn't Michigan football receive a postseason ban from NCAA for sign-stealing scandal?

Alabama Textbook Scandal

The Alabama Textbook Scandal refers to when student-athletes from 16 different Alabama programs, including the football team, were improperly obtaining free textbooks and then giving them to other students

Noted by ESPN, Alabama's football team was forced to vacate 21 football victories that came under former Crimson Tide coaches Mike Shula and Nick Saban. Additionally, the football program and the other 15 programs, which didn't include the Tide's rowing program, were put on a three-year probation by the NCAA while the university was fined $43,900.

Of the 16 programs that were involved, there were 201 student-athletes who improperly obtained textbooks from Alabama's school bookstore. Four football players obtained books worth between $2,700 and $3,950, while the total estimated cost of the textbooks involved was approximately $40,000.

Alabama's bowl ban

Before the textbook scandal, Alabama suffered a five-year probation and two-year bowl ban, plus scholarship reductions, for repeated recruitment violations, which were levied against the university in February 2002.

Then-chairman of the COI Thomas Yeagar said the death penalty had been on the table for events under the tenure of Mike DuBose, who had preceded Dennis Franchione. Alabama cooperated with the NCAA's investigation, and the sanctions ultimately led to Franchione leaving the Tide to join Texas A&M.

As noted by the Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network , late Alabama booster Logan Young was accused of paying Albert Means $150,000 through his coach Lynn Lang.

Ohio State "Tattoogate"

"Tattoogate" refers to a scandal involving Ohio State in 2010 under former Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel, which ultimately led to his departure in Columbus a year later.

In 2010, five Ohio State players, known as the "Tat 5", were involved in a scandal that included selling some of their memorabilia and team-issued merchandise from Ohio State for cash and tattoos at a nearby tattoo parlor on the West Side of Columbus. The five prominent players were Mike Adams, Daniel Herron , DeVier Posey , quarterback Terrelle Pryor and Solomon Thomas .

For this, the players were suspended by the NCAA for the first five games of the 2011 season and were required to repay Ohio State the money they received from the memorabilia sales in monthly installments. A sixth player, freshman linebacker Jordan Whiting, who received a discount on tattoos, was also involved and had to sit out the first game of the 2011 season and pay $150 to a charity.

Since he was aware of the free tattoos and did not inform administrators at Ohio State of it and had signed an NCAA form certifying that he had no knowledge of violations, "Tattoogate" began the ticking time clock on Tressel's time in Columbus. Tressel was forced to resign in May of 2011.

REQUIRED READING: Is Michigan coach Sherrone Moore suspended for Week 1? He will be at New Mexico game

More notably, Ohio State suffered a one-year bowl ban for the infractions, which would prove to be hugely consequential. In Urban Meyer's debut season in Columbus, Ohio State went 12-0 but could not play in the BCS National Championship. Alabama would roll Notre Dame 42-14. Ohio State's 2010 season was also vacated, expunging a 12-1 season and a Sugar Bowl win.

USC infractions under Pete Carroll

Before he returned to the NFL in 2010 as the then-Seattle Seahawks coach, Pete Carroll was involved with one of the biggest scandals in college football history at USC, one of the sport's most well-known brands.

Previously reported by USA TODAY, Yahoo Sports reported in the fall of 2006 that former USC running back Reggie Bush , who was drafted No. 2 overall by the New Orleans Saints in 2006, and his family received payments of over $100,000 from agents while enrolled at USC. The benefits that Bush received included weekly payments and a year of rent-free living at the California home of Michael Michaels, who was attempting to make Bush a client of his after he graduated from college. In other words, Bush was at the center of a pay-for-play scandal, which is against NCAA rules.

For that, USC was hit with massive NCAA penalties as the NCAA ruled the Trojans showed a lack of institutional control. The most severe and notable punishment for USC was the removal of its 2004 BCS national championship title and Bush's 2005 Heisman Trophy award , which has since been reinstated to the running back.

In addition to the vacated wins, USC football suffered a bowl ban in 2010 and 2011. Several other sports programs were affected as well, including basketball for the recruitment of O.J. Mayo.

Hugh Freeze recruiting scandal at Ole Miss

One of the more severe punishments handed out by the NCAA in college football history recently involved Hugh Freeze during his time at Ole Miss.

Freeze's NCAA infractions began on the recruiting trail when the Rebels built four consecutive top-20 recruiting classes over the span of 2013 to 2017. This caught the eyes of the NCAA, which, in January 2016, notified Ole Miss of 13 NCAA violation allegations against the football program. Soon an investigation was started and then expanded when there were findings that former Ole Miss offensive lineman Laremy Tunsil took money from an Ole Miss assistant to pay his rent in Oxford — pay to play.

The NCAA's investigation found Freeze's program committed 21 total violations, with 15 of them being Level I infractions, the most serious on the NCAA's scale of violations. Four of the violations found in the larger NCAA investigation were tied to former Rebels coach Houston Nutt.

But that isn't the only time Freeze got into trouble with the NCAA during his time in Oxford. During research for a defamation suit against Ole Miss, Nutt's lawyers found through a Freedom of Information Act request of Freeze's phone records that he was using his university-issued cellphone to call at least 12 numbers associated with online advertisements for escort services.

Freeze resigned from Ole Miss in 2017.

The NCAA slapped Ole Miss with a lengthy list of penalties and punishments: 33 wins vacated from 2010-2016, a two-year postseason ban (2017 and 2018), three years of probation, scholarship reductions and recruiting restrictions. Freeze was hit with a two-game suspension himself, but did not serve it as he sat out the 2018 college football season.

Notre Dame vacated wins over academic misconduct

In 2016, Notre Dame was ordered by the NCAA to vacate all of its 21 wins from the 2012 and 2013 seasons after it found a former Notre Dame student athletic trainer violated NCAA ethical conduct rules when she committed academic misconduct for two football players and provided six other football players with impermissible academic extra benefits.

There was an additional Notre Dame football player who committed unethical academic misconduct on his own. Notre Dame self-reported all the infractions to the NCAA and was praised for its cooperation in the NCAA's investigation. Notre Dame appealed the NCAA's decision but was denied in 2018.

As penalties, the former Notre Dame football players — Ishaq Williams , Kendall Moore, Eilar Hardy, Davaris Daniels and KeiVarae Russell — were suspended before the 2014 season for academic misconduct and the trainer received a one-year probation and a two-year show-cause order and disassociation. The university was also slapped with $5,000 fine.

Penn State punishment

Of the examples mentioned above, the NCAA's punishments to Penn State during the end of the Joe Paterno era in State College were unprecedented, given that the penalties and punishments came from an off-the-field investigation regarding former Nittany Lions assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

In 2011, Sandusky, who had coached at Penn State from 1969-1999, was arrested for serial sexual abuse against children that happened over a 16-year period dating back to 1994. He was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse in 2012. Noted by ESPN, Sandusky's child sexual abuse was brought to light in 2011 when a former Penn State graduate assistant, Mike McQueary, testified by saying that he saw Sandusky with a young boy naked in a team shower on a Friday night a decade earlier and that he then reported it to Paterno, who then reported it to Penn State administrators. The investigation and trial against Sandusky revealed that Paterno and Penn State administrators knew of Sandusky's behavior and did not report it to police.

Sandusky's arrest prompted Penn State's board of trustees to fire Paterno after the Hall of Fame coach said he was not going to coach any longer after the season finished.

The NCAA hit Penn State with unprecedented sanctions, including a $60 million fine, a four-year postseason football ban, vacating all of Penn State's victories dating back to 1998 — 111 of which were attributed to Paterno — and loss of scholarships.

In 2015, the NCAA reinstated Paterno's 111 wins to give him back the status of major college football's all-time winningest coach. Two years prior, the NCAA also reduced Penn State's penalties by gradually restoring scholarships to the Nittany Lions' roster. The Nittany Lions' postseason ban was also lifted in 2014 by the NCAA's Executive Committee.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Most severe punishments by NCAA in college football history

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