LEXINGTON, Ky. — The NCAA has placed the University of Kentucky’s football and swimming and diving programs on probation for two years for separate rules violations. 

What You Need To Know

  • NCAA has sanctioned UK's football and swimming and diving programs for rules violations

  • The school says it self-reported the violations from both programs

  • Football is vacating all of  the wins from the 2021 season, including a bowl game

  • The swimming and diving violations stem from too many practice hours and not enough time off

In a statement, UK president Eli Capilouto said the school acknowledged the issues within both programs and self-reported the violations to the NCAA. The violations are related to two issues: former football players and their employment at UK HealthCare; and, separately, rules for practice times as administered by the school’s former head swimming coach.

As part of the NCAA agreement, the football program is vacating all of its wins from the 2021 season. Coach Mark Stoops’ team went 10-3 that year, including a 20-17 win over No. 15 Iowa in the Camping World Stadium Bowl.

According to the NCAA, the violations within the football program involved at least 11 players who were paid for work they didn’t perform between the spring of 2021 and March 2022. The NCAA says eight of the student athletes competed and received expenses while ineligible.

The NCAA enforcement staff and the school both agreed staff members in the athletics department did not know or should have known about payments for work the athletes did not perform. But both UK and the NCAA agreed it was a failure-to-monitor violation.

Capilouto addressed the penalties in his statement, saying, “We respect the findings. There is a process. We participated in it. We accept the final resolution, and we are moving forward.”

According to the NCAA release, the swimming and diving violations come from “exceeding limits on countable athletically related activities when student-athletes were not provided with required days off and exceeded practice hours for nearly three years.”

The violations happened under former coach Lars Jorgensen. Jorgensen has also been accused of sexual assault by several former swimmers.

Capilouto said, “Mitch [Barnhart] and I are sickened by allegations that members of the UK community suffered harm because of the actions of someone entrusted to protect and empower our student athletes and staff. We will not tolerate abuse, and neither should anyone who is a member of our community.”

The NCAA release said UK “agreed that it failed to monitor its swimming and diving program and that the underlying violations demonstrated a head coach responsibility violation,“ but also said a former unnamed coach did not participate in the agreement. That portion of the case will be considered separately by the NCAA Committee on Infractions, after which the committee will release its full decision. 

UK says the “failure to monitor” violation for its swim program happened during the pandemic. It said most student athletes were not on campus and the standard in-person monitoring wasn’t possible because of COVID protocols.

Capilouto said in his statement, “As an institution and athletics program, our priority is the health and well-being of our students, faculty and staff. That is why we acted swiftly and are working hard to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future. For the swim program, that included dismissing the coach for the NCAA rules violations regarding the monitoring of practices that Athletics was aware of at that time.”

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