LSU will self-impose restrictions on its football program after an internal investigation found NCAA violations occurred, according to an Athletic Department news release sent Thursday.
Those restrictions include: a reduction in official visits for the 2010-11 academic year, a loss of two scholarships for 2011-12 class, a loss of two overall scholarships for the 2011-12 academic year and a reduction of two national letters of intent LSU can offer before the February 2011 signing date.
The investigation surrounded the recruitment of Akiem Hicks, a former LSU defensive lineman who transferred from a junior college to LSU in summer 2009. LSU sent a report in March to the NCAA and Southeastern Conference regarding Hicks’ recruitment, which said potential violations occurred between Hicks and the coach who recruited him, former wide receivers coach D.J. McCarthy.
The report sent in March said Hicks received impermissible transportation during his official visit and a reduced-rent apartment in Baton Rouge three months before enrolling at LSU.
McCarthy resigned from LSU in December 2009. Hicks never played a down for LSU and eventually transferred before the spring 2010 semester.
LSU has recently discovered that “non-coach administrative staff members” made impermissible phone calls to “prospective student-athletes, their parents or their high school coaches,” according to the release. Only coaches can make phone calls to recruits, according to NCAA rules.
LSU sent its recent findings to the NCAA and SEC in October, according to the release.
The release says the involved staff members didn’t know the calls they made were considered official recruiting calls by the NCAA.
“The calls were mostly responding to inquiries related to campus visit logistical matters, film receipt, tickets for high school coaches, coaching clinics and other such routine matters,” the release says. “Nonetheless, after consultation with the SEC and NCAA, LSU concluded that the calls were impermissible under NCAA rules.”
The release also says LSU is “awaiting the NCAA enforcement staff’s completion of its review of the reports and anticipates receiving notice of allegations from the NCAA, outlining the violations the NCAA believes have occurred.”
“LSU took quick and thorough action when we discovered these violations and we are hopeful the NCAA will ultimately agree with our assessment of this case,” Chancellor Michael Martin said in the release sent Thursday. “The reports to the NCAA and SEC and our decision to self-impose penalties are the culmination of many months of arduous work by our compliance office and I am confident their thorough examination of this case has produced appropriate sanctions for the football program.”
The October report, issued to media by LSU through the news release, says LSU first became aware of the impermissible calls on March 19, four days before the initial report was sent to the NCAA.
The 25-page report says Bo Bahnsen, LSU senior associate athletic director for compliance and planning, was contacted by a compliance staffer at another Division I schools about a story on a recruiting website. The compliance staffer, left unnamed in the report, said she saw quotes in the story from a recruit that insinuated that an LSU staffer had talked to him.
LSU then contacted that recruit’s parents, who confirmed that calls had been made, according to the October report.
LSU proceeded to audit phone records from August 2008 through April 1, 2010, according to the report.
LSU found that 389 calls were made between football administrative staff members and recruits. LSU also says 3,615 calls were made between staff members and high school coaches of recruits.
The school says that 70 percent of the calls made were less than 2 minutes long, which leads it to believe the calls were not necessarily meant to recruit the athletes to LSU, but were rather clerical in nature.
The report outlines staff members that made the calls and details surrounding the calls, but the names of the staffers are redacted throughout the report.
“Our compliance office discovered additional violations during the course of this investigation and took immediate corrective measures to ensure they would not occur again, which is what a good compliance office is supposed to do,” Joe Alleva, vice chancellor and director of athletics, said in the release. “I am disappointed that these violations took place, but I am proud of the way that LSU reacted to the situation. We now stand ready to assist the NCAA in the completion of this process.”
LSU says in its report that it took several actions to ensure these types of violations never occur again. These steps include:
1) Updating job descriptions to fully definite proper and improper actions by staff members
2) Holding monthly educational meetings with staff members about proper and improper activity
3) Directing more contact with recruit to e-mail and removing its 1-800 phone number from its website.
Alleva also sent a memo to football administrative staff members and other administrators in other sports that detailed improper NCAA activities, according to the LSU release.
 
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