Texas A&M Faces NCAA Scrutiny After Latest Report Of Recruiting & Practice Violations

Dan Wolken with USA Today Sports is reporting that Texas A&M could face some serious scrutiny from the NCAA regarding recruiting and practice violations involving former linebacker Santino Marchiol, who recently transferred to Arizona.

Marchiol is already enrolled and practicing at Arizona and has requested an NCAA waiver that would allow him to play immediately instead of sitting out the upcoming season.

In that wavier, Marchiol outlined some behavior and violations that were going on at Texas A&M.

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Over the next several months, however, Marchiol said he witnessed behavior that made him uncomfortable, including, he asserts, an assistant coach giving him cash to host top recruits on"unofficial" visits. Marchiol also said he and other players were evaluated in June practice sessions that were allegedly voluntary but were operated and observed outside the NCAA rule book.

The new coaching staff arrived with a mind-set that the team was soft, Marchiol said, and demeaning and vulgar language directed at players became common. Then the training staff at Texas A&M, he claims, mishandled an ankle injury that doctors had said would require caution because of a surgery Marchiol had that sidelined him in his freshman year.

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Texas A&M linebackers coach Bradley Dale Peveto, who joined the Aggies staff after being fired from LSU in November of 2016, reportedly gave Marchiol "hundreds of dollars in cash" to entertain recruits this offseason.

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On two separate weekends this spring, Marchiol told USA TODAY Sports, he was given hundreds of dollars in cash by linebackers coach Bradley Dale Peveto to entertain prospects on unofficial visits. Those recruiting visits occurred, he said, following the April 14 spring game with Zach Edwards, a three-star linebacker from Starkville, Mississippi, and the second weekend in June with four-star linebacker Christian Harris (now a Texas A&M verbal commitment) and Nakobe Dean from Horn Lake, Mississippi, ranked as the No. 1 inside linebacker in the country by Rivals.com.

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Texas A&M released the following statement regarding the report:

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Texas A&M provided a statement that read: “Texas A&M Athletics takes these allegations seriously, and we are reviewing the situation with the NCAA and the SEC Office.”

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Things could get real dicey in College Station real quick. You can read the whole report here, its well worth it.