In what can only be described as disappointing news, Michigan State football has been punished by the NCAA for its involvement in some recruiting violations under Mel Tucker.
The former head coach as well as Saeed Khalid and Brandon Jordan were punished by the NCAA with show-causes as well as the Michigan State program vacating all wins from 2022-2024. That means that Jonathan Smith has yet to win a Big Ten game, according to the NCAA.
Along with vacating wins, Michigan State will face a fine, reduce official visits in each of the next three seasons, unofficial visits will also be reduced, and other recruiting reductions and punishments along with a three-year probation.
This punishment is officially harsher than Michigan’s for its sign-stealing scandal.
MSU has to vacate wins from 2022-2024.
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) November 12, 2025
Poor Jonathan Smith now has 0 Big Ten wins in his tenure.
These terms were negotiated and agreed upon by both Michigan State and the NCAA, so it’s clear that the university felt like it did enough wrong under Tucker’s watch that warranted these harsh punishments. To be fair, though, vacating wins during those bowl-less seasons doesn’t actually hurt the program much. No one remembers those years fondly as is.
But honestly, this is just far too harsh of a punishment for a program that has fired all involved and when the NCAA handed out its Michigan punishment, it said that it felt like vacating any wins or titles would be unfair to the current student-athletes.
That apparently only applies to Michigan, and not Michigan State.
Playing favorites is just what the NCAA does, and that’s why hardly anyone takes them seriously anymore. Don’t punish Michigan’s current student-athletes for the cheating and massive failures of the previous staff, but do so for Michigan State because, well, money.