The Mel Tucker era will not die. After Michigan State football parted ways with Tucker during the 2023 season following an off-field incident involving him and Brenda Tracy, the Spartans seemed to want a clean break and to move on.
Alan Haller quickly launched a search for his next head coach while Harlon Barnett took over as the interim and led the Spartans to a 4-8 season and a second straight missed bowl.
The Tucker era would be remembered for Kenneth Walker III, the Sugar Bowl, recruiting misses, and the Tracy incident but now it might be known for something else, too: violations.
According to a recent report, Michigan State is under investigation for alleged violations during the Tucker era.
BREAKING: MSU under NCAA investigation for alleged violations during Tucker tenure, president says https://t.co/UTpWYFq4hZ via @detroitnews
— Kim Kozlowski (@kimberkoz) April 3, 2025
What are these violations? It sounds like something related to recruiting and the university actually turned itself in when it found the violations which should take some of the potential punishment down a notch. Hopefully the violations are minor so the worst that happens is probation or maybe a handful of lost scholarships.
Either way, it looks like Michigan State has complied and is working with the NCAA.
Michigan State didn't really benefit from these violations during the Tucker era as he was responsible for three losing seasons (2020, 2022, still counting him for 2023) to go along with an 11-2 Sugar Bowl campaign in 2021. He had one successful year out of four so the violations didn't help clearly.
Anyways, let's hope this doesn't affect what Jonathan Smith is trying to do this year and moving forward, but there could be some sort of punishment heading Michigan State's way.