North Dakota hit with NCAA tampering penalties in transfer portal case

North Dakota’s transfer-portal misstep cost the Fighting Hawks more than a fine. The NCAA handed the program one year of probation, a $25,000 penalty and a set of recruiting restrictions after assistant coach Travis Stepps was found to have communicated with a student-athlete who had not yet entered the portal.

The core violation was straightforward and damaging in today’s roster market: Stepps, who had recruited the player out of high school, stayed in contact while the athlete was still at another school and not yet eligible for portal-driven recruiting under NCAA rules. Most of the conversations happened in the fall before football’s notification-of-transfer window opened, and they centered on the athlete’s interest in North Dakota, including offers to send practice film and an academic transcript. The case came to light when Stepps sent the transcript to the University of North Dakota compliance department, which flagged that the player was not in the portal and triggered the self-report.

The punishment changes day-to-day football operations in practical ways. Stepps will serve a one-game suspension during the 2026 season and a one-year show-cause order tied to the January 2027 transfer window, which limits his communication with four-year transfer prospects in that period. North Dakota also received a one-week ban on recruiting communications during the January 2027 notification-of-transfer window, a 3% reduction in official paid visits for the 2026-27 academic year, and three separate one-week bans on unofficial visits during that same academic year. In a sport where a few visits can swing a class, a 3% cut narrows a staff’s margin at exactly the moment roster turnover keeps accelerating.

The NCAA handled the case through negotiated resolution, meaning the university, Stepps, head coach Eric Schmidt and enforcement staff agreed the violations occurred and accepted the penalty package without a formal hearing. That matters because negotiated resolutions cannot be appealed and do not set precedent, yet the NCAA’s public treatment of the case still sends a clear signal. In February 2026, NCAA enforcement told schools it would pursue significant penalties for tampering violations, and this FCS-only case shows that message is not reserved for the sport’s biggest brands.

For North Dakota, the timing is especially relevant. The Fighting Hawks finished 8-6 overall and 5-3 in Missouri Valley Football Conference play in 2025, and they announced nine transfers for that season, evidence of how central portal management has become to their roster construction. Eric Schmidt, hired by Bill Chaves on December 8, 2024, was deemed automatically responsible under head coach responsibility rules, but the NCAA gave him no personal penalty because it said he was unaware of the contact and had promoted compliance. Even so, the program now enters another roster cycle under a compliance cloud, with the NCAA showing it is willing to police tampering in the FCS, not just the high-profile power leagues.