GRAND FORKS — The NCAA has penalized the UND football program for a tampering violation, the organization announced Friday.
UND assistant coach Travis Stepps had “impermissible recruiting conversations with a student-athlete from another school who had not been entered in the Transfer Portal,” according to an NCAA release.
UND’s punishment includes a $25,000 fine, a one-week ban on recruiting communications, a 3 percent reduction in official paid visits, three one-week bans on unofficial visits, a one-year show-cause order for Stepps, a one-game suspension for Stepps and a year of probation for the football program.
The probationary period doesn’t come with any postseason implications, according to a UND spokesperson.
“We take responsibility for this Level II violation. It was identified through our own internal review and promptly self-reported, which reflects our commitment to compliance and institutional integrity,” UND athletic director Bill Chaves said in a statement. “At the same time, I would be remiss to not acknowledge the broader context in which this occurred. The current recruiting environment, particularly in football, has evolved rapidly, and there are areas where existing NCAA rules don’t always align cleanly with the realities of today’s recruiting cycle. That tension doesn’t excuse the violation, but it does underscore the need for continued clarity and modernization in the rules and the 12-month football calendar. Our focus remains on educating our staff, strengthening our processes and competing the right way while adapting to a changing landscape.”
Stepps has been with the Fighting Hawks for more than 10 years, following a 12-year stint at Southern Illinois, where he crossed paths with current UND head coach Eric Schmidt and former UND head coach Bubba Schweigert.
According to the NCAA, Stepps knowingly communicated with a student-athlete at another school whom he had previously recruited out of high school. The majority of the conversations occurred in the fall before the notification-of-transfer window for football had opened — and centered on the student-athlete inquiring about transferring to North Dakota, offering to send Stepps his practice film and providing his academic transcript.
The violations were uncovered when Stepps sent the transcript to the UND compliance department, which flagged that the student-athlete was not in the transfer portal and self-reported the violation.
“We acknowledge the violation and take responsibility for it,” Schmidt said in a release. “We are committed to doing things the right way. At the same time, there’s important context here — the recruit in this case never set foot on our campus in Grand Forks nor played for us, and the intent was to support him based on a prior relationship. That doesn’t excuse the violation, and we understand the standard we are held to, but it does speak to the circumstances surrounding it. Moving forward, we’ll continue to educate our staff and ensure we’re operating within both the letter and the spirit of the rules.”
According to the case synopsis, Stepps was communicating with an athlete at Riverside Community College. Ultimately, the athlete, unnamed in the NCAA documents, enrolled at Lindenwood University.
Schmidt won’t personally be penalized by the NCAA, according to the report.
“Schmidt promoted an atmosphere of compliance within the football program and monitored his staff,” the report said. “Accordingly, the parties agree that a penalty for Schmidt is not appropriate.”
