It’s safe to say that the authorities at Michigan State University would rather forget about Mel Tucker’s tenure as head coach of the school’s football program. His stint with the Spartans was marred by scandal, culminating in his dismissal due to sexual impropriety with a school advisor.
It turns out that wasn’t all that was going wrong under his watch. The NCAA has indicated that under Mel Tucker, the program provided up to six recruits with impermissible recruiting inducements valued over $10,000.
NEWS: The NCAA has vacated 14 Michigan State wins from the 2022-24 seasons due to the participation of three ineligible players❌
Jonathan Smith now has zero Big Ten wins in his tenure with the Spartans.https://t.co/EU7nPGZ0uT pic.twitter.com/K75R76KkyF
— On3 (@On3sports) November 12, 2025
According to the NCAA COI, player personnel director Saeed Khalif and former assistant coach Brandon Jordan knowingly provided impermissible benefits to the recruits. Some of the recruits participated in 26 games for the Spartans while ineligible.
Some of the instances of impermissible benefits included paying for a recruit’s family vacation, paying $700 to a recruit’s trainer to ensure the player attended a visit at East Lansing, and covering the airfare for other recruits to visit the school.
For this, the NCAA has now vacated 14 Michigan State victories from Mel Tucker’s tenure with the program.
Why Was Mel Tucker Dismissed By Michigan State?
Mel Tucker was accused of sexual harassment by Brenda Tracy, a rape survivor turned activist who acted as a consultant for the Michigan State Spartans on matters of sexual education for players.
During her consultancy for the program, she generated a working relationship with Mel Tucker, and according to her, the coach eventually made unwarranted sexual advances to her. At the time, she told USA Today:
“The idea that someone could know me and say they understand my trauma but then re-inflict that trauma on me is so disgusting to me, it’s hard for me to even wrap my mind around it. It’s like he sought me out just to betray me.”
The school initiated a Title IX investigation, suspended Tucker in September, and fired him later that month, saying he had subjected the institution to ridicule.
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