REPORT: USC Football Program Fined, Placed on Probation Per NCAA

The USC Football program continues to find itself in a true tailspin.

USC currently sits at 4-5 overall on the season. The Trojans are 2-5 in conference play — only ahead of Maryland (1-5) and Purdue (0-6) in the 18-team Big Ten. QB Miller Moss was unceremoniously benched, and the Trojans continue to lose previously-committed recruits to other programs.

Oh — and now there’s the issue of being on probation by the NCAA.

The NCAA has placed USC on probation for a violation of what’s being called “on and off-field coaching activities.” Essentially, over periods in 2022 and 2023, eight analysts for the football program conducted coaching activities. However, per the NCAA, programs were allowed to have only two coaches during these periods.

The following has been released by the NCAA:

Violations occurred in the Southern California football program when the program exceeded the allowable number of coaches over two academic years, according to an agreement released by the Division I Committee on Infractions. As a result of the violations, the parties also agreed that football head coach Lincoln Riley violated head coach responsibility rules. The school and the enforcement staff agreed that the violations in this case occurred when eight analysts for the football program engaged in on- and off-field coaching activities during spring 2022, fall 2022 and spring 2023, resulting in the football program exceeding the permissible number of countable coaches by six for two academic years.

The decision contains the full list of penalties as approved by the Committee on Infractions, including:

• One year of probation.
• A $50,000 fine.
• A restriction for the special teams analyst from practice and film review for six consecutive days during two weeks of the 2024-25 season.
• A restriction for the remaining analysts from practice and film review for six consecutive days during four weeks of the 2024-25 season.
• A reduction in countable athletically related activities for the football program by 24 hours during the 2023-24 season (self-imposed by the school).

According to the report, head coach Lincoln Riley will not be suspended.