Details that led to North Dakota's recent "tampering" violations are revealed, and it's not a good look for the NCAA

Just a few days ago, late last week, we shared the story out of North Dakota where defensive backs coach Travis Stepps had impermissible contact with a player who was not yet in the transfer portal, which led to some significant discipline being handed to the North Dakota football program that included a $25k fine, 1-year of probation, and a 1-week ban on recruiting communications during the January portal window as well as a reduction and ban on official visits.

Read our full breakdown based on the NCAA release here.

One small detail that many seemed to have glossed over in the NCAA release is that the contact came with a Junior College player. That, on it's own, seems like it should be treated quite a bit differently than poaching a kid from a D-II, FCS or FBS program as Junior College players are literally at their school for a year or two with the goal of landing at a four-year school. 

There should be levels to "tampering" as what Ole Miss and Pete Golding are accused of doing are not the same as what gets laid here in moment.

Earlier today, head coach Eric Schmidt cleared the air about the details surrounding the situation on the UND Football 360 podcast, and the contact with the JuCo player as all the details get laid out on the table, it does not seem like a great look for the NCAA.

"He called us and was like 'Hey, would you be interested in me? I'd like to transfer out of the school that I'm at right now,' and coach Stepps had a prior relationship with the kid, so there was a conversation there that led into some text messages and things like that."

Schmidt goes on to share that, number one, the kid initiated the contact, and secondly, it was self-reported once Stepps took the kid's transcript to the school's compliance office, and not to mention they didn't have a roster spot available so Stepps was trying to help the kid find a landing spot because they had developed a relationship during the recruiting process previously.

"We're not recruiting the kid. Travis was doing all this on his own because he was trying to help the kid. He called us and we said we don't have room for you, but can call some colleagues that would maybe be interested in you and go from there."

"Ultimately, the way I look at it is, we were going 26 miles an hour in a 25 [mph zone]. Now, all of a sudden, we're losing our license for an entire year, and there's guys that are out there speeding and in high speed chases and there's been nothing, as you see all these stories and nothing has been done."

"If the headline read 'UND self-reports after kid calls to inquire if he can transfer there' sounds a lot different than 'tampering,' and that's actually what happened at the end of the day."

Hear coach Schmidt's full comments in the clip.