FORT MYERS, Fla — The NCAA announced Friday that it penalized the FGCU Athletics program for major infractions.
The NCAA said from July 2023 through May 2024, the FGCU men's tennis "coach Davidson Kozlowski and his staff conducted impermissible tryouts with prospects and provided impermissible benefits and recruiting inducements."
It also found 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 NCAA fined the university $25,000. Other penalties include: two years of probation; a reduction of unofficial visits, and a vacation of team and individual records over the course of the 11 months in which the ineligible players competed.
FGCU said as it "worked alongside the NCAA to resolve this case, the university took it upon itself to conduct a comprehensive review of student-athlete certification for the entire Athletics program."
"The certification errors were immediately reported to the NCAA," FGCU said in a statement. "Over the past 16 months the university has worked in partnership with the NCAA to resolve these irregularities, which were consolidated into one negotiated resolution."
FGCU says the employees who were responsible for the violations are no longer with the university. It said it "has implemented new procedures and established additional checks-and-balances to its compliance process to prevent future certification issues. Due to FGCU's due diligence and cooperation, the infractions were mitigated to Level II violations."
