Jonathan Smith reacts to NCAA sanctions against Michigan State program

It’s been a rough year for Michigan State, and last week was a long week within that year individually. On Wednesday, the Spartans were hit was NCAA sanctions stemming from the Mel Tucker era. Then, on Saturday, Jonathan Smith and Michigan State dropped a seventh straight game.

It was after that loss to Penn State when Smith addressed the NCAA sanctions. He’d explain that while he didn’t entirely agree with them, Smith did want to find a way to put them behind him. In particular, as he tries to get the program rolling in the right direction.

“That’s been a long kind of process, negotiation, things of that nature,” Jonathan Smith said. “I echo our leadership in regards to getting something behind us so we can move forward.”

From October of 2021 to March of 2023, under Mel Tucker, the NCAA found Michigan State committed more than $10,000 in impermissible recruiting inducements. Tucker, who would be fired after being accused of sexual harassment, was also cited as failing his responsibility, though he was not involved in the violation. He would be hit with a three-year show cause penalty. Former general manager/player personnel director Saeed Khalif and former assistant coach Brandon Jordan would also receive show cause penalties.

Michigan State further agreed to three years of postseason probation, a $30,000 fine plus 1.5 percent of the football program’s budget, a loss of official visits during two home games during the 2025 football season and one apiece during the 2026 and 2027 seasons. On top of that, Smith and Michigan State are navigating a reduction of 30 total recruiting days and a total six-week ban on recruiting communication through the 2027-28 academic year. Michigan State was also docked its wins from 2022-24. That included stripping Smith of five wins a season ago, dropping his official record to 3-14 during his time there.

“Look, we’re working to, again, have some success out there. We’ve taken some body blows, we’ll call it. I know it’s not a lack of effort out of this coaching staff and those players in there. We’ve been proactive, understanding through these negotiations that this had a good chance of coming. So, we proactively on the recruiting side,” Smith said. “Even in the spring and the fall, we took some limitations on the recruiting side proactively knowing this was coming.”

Those vacated wins are going to impact Smith, despite not being his responsibility. It’s not something he entirely agrees with. However, now he needs to deal with these punishments and find a way to move on.

“I don’t agree with it. I think that’s similar to the stance at Michigan State, that we don’t totally agree with it,” Smith said. “That I think we can modernize – modernize was a part of the quote [from the university] – how penalties are enforced.”

For now, Smith is focused on ending a frustrating season on as high a note as possible. That would mean winning the next couple of games, starting with Iowa next week.