Nebraska Football NCAA Violations: Scott Frost to Receive 1-Year Show Cause for Violating “Countable Coaches” Rule

The Nebraska football program admitted that misused Jonathan Rutledge while he was a special team’s analyst in 2020. Since Rutledge was an analyst, and not an official coaching staff member, should not have been providing “technical or tactical instruction” to the players during practices or film sessions. Nor should he have been doing so during games.

Since Nebraska allowed him to do so, they knowingly violated the limit on the number of permissible coaches as allowed by the NCAA. This is known as the “countable coaches” rule.

Here is a link to the NCAA article on the violation.

As a result of the violation there following penalties negotiated with and accepted by the Nebraska Athletic Department:

• A one-year extension to the current probationary period (through April 2023).
• A $10,000 fine.
• A one-year show-cause order for the football head coach, plus a five-day suspension from all coaching duties during the championship segment of the 2022 football season.
• A reduction of the number of football countable coaches by one for two days of practice during the spring 2022 season.
• All noncoaching staff members will be removed from practice and competition for five consecutive days during the championship segment of the 2022 season.

Here is the statement from Trev Alberts:

“I am appreciative of the diligent efforts of our University of Nebraska staff in working to bring this matter to a close. We have had outstanding collaboration with the NCAA, and I want to thank the NCAA staff for their time and professionalism throughout this process.

“It is important for the Nebraska Athletic Department and football program to put this matter behind us and turn our full attention to the upcoming season. We are pleased with the outcome and believe the negotiated resolution is fair and equitable. At Nebraska we are committed to running an athletic department that is fully compliant with all NCAA rules.”

My question to end this, and we will probably figure out the answer soon, is how does the NCAA define a “championship segment”

Pulling from NCAA Division II handout on “Countable Athletics Related Activities” it states the following:

The playing season for some sports is separated into a championship segment (when competition is conducted in which results are counted for postseason selection) and a nonchampionship segment (the segment in which the NCAA championship does not occur).

So does the “championship segment” mean the college football regular season?

Lastly, cue the “they cheated and still were awful” comments. They aren’t wrong.