Major SEC Program Must Vacate Wins Due To NCAA Violations

The Kentucky Wildcats football program will have to vacate all 10 wins from the 2021 season due to Level II violations officially handed down by the NCAA on Friday.

Additionally, Mark Stoops' Wildcats will be on probation for two years, though they will not have to sit out bowl games if invited. UK will also be fined an undisclosed amount.

Kentucky went 10-3 in 2021, its best season since 2018, finished second to national champion Georgia in the SEC East and beat Iowa in the Citrus Bowl.

Violations stem from 11 players receiving compensation from work not performed at at the University of Kentucky hospital from spring 2021 to 2022. Eight of those players competed and received "actual and necessary expenses while ineligible," per the NCAA's release , leading to the vacated wins.

UK self-reported the violations in September 2022.

The release also says that there is no failure-to-monitor violation for the football program due to an agreement by both parties that no staff member in the athletics department knew or reasonably should have known about the players receiving payment for work not performed.

“The agreed-upon penalties in this case include two years of probation for the school, a fine and vacation of records of any games in which football student-athletes competed while ineligible, in alignment with the Level II-standard classification for the school,” the NCAA’s release says.

Additionally, the UK swimming program is also facing Level II violations for exceeding limits on athletically related activities by not providing athletes with required days off and exceeding practice hours under former head coach Lars Jorgensen.

Jorgensen is also at the center of a separate investigation regarding sexual misconduct during his tenure from 2013-23.

The school agreed that it failed in oversight of the swimming program and the violations demonstrated a head coach responsibility violation.

Kentucky football will kick off the 2024 season at home against Southern Miss on Aug. 31.

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