Recruiting Violations?

[DastardlyDave]

https://www.valleynewslive.com/2026/06/05/und-football-faces-serious-penalties-after-tampering-violations/

[FSSD]

7 hours ago, DastardlyDave said:

https://www.valleynewslive.com/2026/06/05/und-football-faces-serious-penalties-after-tampering-violations/

Wow, you can't make this stuff up with the Fargo media:

1. No mention that playoff eligibility is unaffected and that no scholarships were impacted.
2. Apparently, the FCS is now Division II in Fargo. From the article: "UND Football is coming off a successful 2025 season that moved onto the second round of the NCAA Division II football tournament."

What can you say? Fargo is going to Fargo.

[UND1983]

I am really worried.  

[Nodak1883]

11 minutes ago, FSSD said:

Wow, you can't make this stuff up with the Fargo media:

1. No mention that playoff eligibility is unaffected and that no scholarships were impacted.
2. Apparently, the FCS is now Division II in Fargo. From the article: "UND Football is coming off a successful 2025 season that moved onto the second round of the NCAA Division II football tournament."

What can you say? Fargo is going to Fargo.

It's also VNL, which for the past 10+ years has basically become a trash tabloid rag for Fargo with what stories they publish. 

[Nodak1883]

7 minutes ago, UND1983 said:

I am really worried.  

Honestly the penalties are pretty minor:

1. One year of probation
2. $25,000 fine
3. A one-week ban on recruiting communications for the football program during the January 2027 notification-of-transfer window
4. A 3% reduction in official paid visits in football during the 2026-27 academic year
5. Three one-week bans on football unofficial visits during the 2026-27 academic year
6. A one-year show-cause order for Stepps, during which any employing NCAA member school must restrict him from communicating with four-year transfer prospects during the entire January 2027 football notification-of-transfer window.
7. One-game suspension for Stepps during the 2026 football season.

 

#3 is probably the worst of the bunch. Travis is a DB coach so I would expect him to be out for the home opener against LIU which fulfils (#7). The unofficial visits likely can be taken during slower recruiting periods or stacked together depending on how they need to be taken (#5). #6 probably won't be hard to work through as it's only one recruiting year. I don't know how often #4 occurs to determine its severity either.  

[Shawn-O]

9 hours ago, Nodak1883 said:

Honestly the penalties are pretty minor:

1. One year of probation
2. $25,000 fine
3. A one-week ban on recruiting communications for the football program during the January 2027 notification-of-transfer window
4. A 3% reduction in official paid visits in football during the 2026-27 academic year
5. Three one-week bans on football unofficial visits during the 2026-27 academic year
6. A one-year show-cause order for Stepps, during which any employing NCAA member school must restrict him from communicating with four-year transfer prospects during the entire January 2027 football notification-of-transfer window.
7. One-game suspension for Stepps during the 2026 football season.

 

#3 is probably the worst of the bunch. Travis is a DB coach so I would expect him to be out for the home opener against LIU which fulfils (#7). The unofficial visits likely can be taken during slower recruiting periods or stacked together depending on how they need to be taken (#5). #6 probably won't be hard to work through as it's only one recruiting year. I don't know how often #4 occurs to determine its severity either.  

So did we get the kid? 

[SiouxFan100]

Embarrassing 

[Oxbow6]

10 minutes ago, Shawn-O said:

So did we get the kid? 

He talked to 12 other schools before UND, so no.

[UND1983]

The kid was no good, per my sources.  Which makes it worse

[UNDvince97-01]

19 hours ago, SiouxFan100 said:

Embarrassing 

What's embarrassing?

[Hawkster]

22 minutes ago, UNDvince97-01 said:

What's embarrassing?

Probably that Chaves turned us in.

[CMSioux]

21 hours ago, Shawn-O said:

So did we get the kid? 

From what I read the kid called the coach, not the other way around. We didn't get him but then again it appears all we did was pick up the phone. 

[UND1983]

21 hours ago, Shawn-O said:

So did we get the kid? 

The kid was not good at football

[shep]

360 guys say the kid instigated this by sending info to UND even though Stepps did not  seek it.

[Sioux90]

Can we do anything right?

[DastardlyDave]

This all seems like a real nothing burger.

[DastardlyDave]

On 6/6/2026 at 10:21 PM, SiouxFan100 said:

Embarrassing 

But it seems like a nothing violation for a nothing burger penalty.  

[The Sicatoka]

As I said before, regarding tampering …

Feb 2025
We all know Perron is going to Michigan
We all knew Boisvert and Omac were going to Boston U

But Steppes is the issue?

[AJS]

1 hour ago, Sioux90 said:

Can we do anything right?

Doesn’t feel like.

I don’t think the infraction or penalty are really anything. What it will be is an exhausting issue to hear forever from other fan bases. Scarlet letter. 
 

Maybe someday UND won’t be the butt of the joke (non-hockey). Feel that day won’t come until there’s leadership in the AD office. 

[Big Green]

I get the feeling these recruiting violations are happening all over the place at other schools, but they are not self reporting.  Oh well.  I'm not too upset that we were trying to push the envelope.  Better be on our best behavior now since we are under probation.

 

[Long Snapper 92]

Once again we have a glaring AD issue at UND

[Hawkster]

I actually hope there's more to this than we are hearing.   The kid contacts US and it sounds like we didn't even offer,  we report this as a violation, and the NCAA penalizes US and the kid commits to Lindenwood.   What am I missing here?   We didn't even want the guy

[jdub27]

16 minutes ago, Hawkster said:

I actually hope there's more to this than we are hearing.   The kid contacts US and it sounds like we didn't even offer,  we report this as a violation, and the NCAA penalizes US and the kid commits to Lindenwood.   What am I missing here?   We didn't even want the guy

UNDFootball360 will have Schmidt on the podcast to go over.

The kid's transcript getting to the compliance department and getting flagged seems to be where the issue popped up. How/why that got there seems to be the bigger question. Whether everyone is doing it or not (they are), can't put the compliance department in that position. Them not doing their job can lead to much bigger problems that are much bigger than the nothingburger that they agreed to.

[UND-FB-FAN]

1 hour ago, Long Snapper 92 said:

Once again we have a glaring AD issue at UND

Correct. 
everyone should be vocal we need new leadership there 

[UND-FB-FAN]

1 hour ago, jdub27 said:

UNDFootball360 will have Schmidt on the podcast to go over.

The kid's transcript getting to the compliance department and getting flagged seems to be where the issue popped up. How/why that got there seems to be the bigger question. Whether everyone is doing it or not (they are), can't put the compliance department in that position. Them not doing their job can lead to much bigger problems that are much bigger than the nothingburger that they agreed to.

This is one way to look at it but I don’t agree with it in its entirety. 
 

This issue is a matter of perspective, and how UND and UND athletics views football is still an ongoing issue. 
 

it can improve with new leadership, which UND needs. Thank you Bill Chaves for your efforts, but nothing lasts forever; time to move on to the next step so UND athletics can take the next step COMPETITIVELY compared to other programs