SMU women’s swimming & diving head coach Ozzie Quevedo was found to have violated NCAA recruiting rules after contacting a transfer prospect prior to their entry into the transfer portal, the NCAA announced Wednesday.
Quevedo initially called the student-athlete on the phone and then emailed her father before she had entered the transfer portal. A few days later, he sent the prospect multiple messages via WhatsApp, offering her “athletically related aid” (scholarship money). The offer was denied but he continued to send her messages.
Quevedo has since “acknowledged he was aware he was engaging in impermissible conduct.”
SMU, Quevedo and the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions agreed that the coach violated recruiting rules, leading Quevedo and the program to receive seven infractions.
The punishments aren’t as stiff as they might’ve been given Quevedo reported his own infraction to SMU’s compliance office.
“Quevedo is responsible for the violations under head coach responsibility rules,” the NCAA said.
“However, Quevedo promptly self-reported the violations to the university’s compliance office and accepted responsibility for them. Quevedo also acknowledged that he was well-educated and trained on recruiting rules and the transfer process; therefore, SMU did not fail to create an atmosphere of compliance or fail to monitor the program.”
The women’s swim & dive program received Level II-mitigated penalties and Level-II standard infractions were given to Quevedo.
The penalties will restrict Quevedo and SMU’s ability to actively recruit this season, and they’ll also see the coach miss 10% of the team’s practices throughout 2024-25. He’s also been given a show-cause order that will see him be absent from practices for 15 consecutive days during the “championship season.”
The penalties are as follows:
- One year of probation.
- A $5,000 fine.
- A 10% reduction in paid official visits for the women’s swimming and diving program for the 2024-25 academic year.
- A one-week prohibition against unofficial visits in the women’s swimming and diving program.
- A four-week prohibition in recruiting communications in the women’s swimming and diving program.
- A two-week prohibition has already been served and counts toward the four-week restriction (self-imposed).
- The remaining two-week restriction must be served when the swimming and diving Transfer Portal window opens during the 2024-25 academic year.
- A one-year show-cause order for Quevedo. During the show-cause order, Quevedo must be restricted from attending practice for 15 consecutive days for the 2024-25 championship season and must attend the 2025 NCAA Regional Rules Seminar at his own expense.
- Any school employing Quevedo in an athletically related position shall suspend him from 10% of the women’s swimming and diving regular-season contests during the 2024-25 academic year.
- Quevedo cannot be present, have contact or communicate with women’s swimming and diving coaching staff members or student-athletes during the suspension period. Additionally, Quevedo may not participate in any coaching activities, including team travel, practice, video study, recruiting or team meetings.
You can read the full resolution here.
Quevedo is coming off his first season as the head coach of the SMU women’s team, having been hired in April 2023 after a four-year run as an associate head coach at Alabama.
In his first campaign in Dallas, Quevedo led the Mustangs to a runner-up finish at the American Athletic Conference (AAC) Championships, moving up one spot from where they finished the season prior—though the 2023 conference champions, Houston, moved to the Big 12 last season.
SMU is joining the ACC this season.
Notably, SwimSwam reported in April how Quevedo made numerous cuts at the end of the 2023-24 season, with several members of the women’s roster opting to transfer elsewhere.
In July, SMU announced the addition of nine swimmers to its 2024-25 roster, along with three divers, while noting that only seven swimmers from last year’s team were returning.
The newcomers include NCAA transfers Madeleine Hebert (NC State), Isabella Krantzcke (Arizona State), Mira Szimcsak (Washington State), and Madison Parker (Washington State).
SMU gave Ozzie the job to make them competitive in the ACC. Unfortunately, for the former athletes that didn’t have the talent and/or didn’t want to train, commit or conduct themselves at a high D1 level and they needed to move on. You can’t reach your potential on a diet Hohos, Twinkees and spiked jungle juice. This was a “them” problem NOT an “Ozzie” problem. Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life… The faster SMU cleaned house, the sooner they will compete at the ACC and DI level. As far as the violations go, there isn’t a program in the top-20 that is NOT doing the same thing. His punishment was far too severe! I wish… Read more »
Wow you have no clue. If Ozzie told you he had to get rid of most of the team because they are fat partiers with poor diets thats another lie.
What does that have to do with Ozzie’s illegal recruitment tactics.
Well said. At the end of the day this quote sums it up: Mediocre people don’t like high achievers, and high achievers don’t like mediocre people.
This has not been the best pairing. And frankly I’m surprised he didn’t try to get out sooner with the number of jobs open recently.
Hah – thanks for the infomercial for someone who knowingly broke the rules.
It’s his first head coaching position at a power 4 school other than a few months as the bama interim head coach. He is still learning and unfortunately struggling. His other experiences are just not the same. An assistant coach is not the same. Trying to get young adults to balance school and swimming is a different skill set. Maybe this was too much of a leap and should have started his college head coaching career at a lower level.
Every compliance office is drilling recruiting rules into the heads of assistant and head coaches. No excuse. Respect that he admitted to knowing he was violating a rule.
Knowingly knew he was breaking rules, but still proceeded to break them …
Head coach Mobo let’s gooooo
The comment that 15 people quit/kicked off sounds bad till you look closer. Of the actual 12 I could find, only 5 even placed at conference. 3 of those placed 14/14/17 at their best event. 1 made a final with a 7th and the biggest loss was 1 person who won an event. Zero made NCAAs of the 12 and only 1 on the whole team. Since it’s competitive swimming, Ozzie had 2 scoring girls leave, not 15, they’ll be fine without them. History says the team will be better off after a cull. Anyone who knows the NCAA knows you have to admit a mistake to get a lesser charge, and say certain things to get the school out… Read more »
Obviously you didn’t look at the stats of the 7 that were kept and compare. He’s a great showman and narcissist. Based on your comments I can see why you think he’s a good guy.
Maybe the 7 that were kept help build a team environment and work ethic that a head coach wants. Times matter but so does a team culture long term.
Is recruiting violations changing the culture in a positive direction? How does one believe in the coach who does this?
If you knew the character, grades and work ethic of all involved including who was in the pool during the summers you’d feel differently. There were not nearly 20 bad apples in that bunch which is what you are being lead to believe.
Maybe some of the commenters here are closer (or maybe they are TOO close) to the situation than most but….
Cmon. Did Ozzie F up? Of course.
But in terms of the comments here in relation (not related to actual article) to the POOR kids now gone or done wrong by Ozzie…Give. Us. A. Break.
If it’s 14 kids that want to commit to excellence, then it’s 14 kids. 14 that do is WAY better than 25 that don’t. No discussion here.
Let’s be honest…. A high level achieving coach with the pedigree Ozzie has does NOT mix with the completely overly entitled, EXTREMELY rich roster that is the SMU Women’s “team”.. Changing that culture is a… Read more »
All I can say is wow! Being on the SMU swim team isn’t about how much money you have and you’ve made a lot of wrong and cruel assumptions.
Is recruiting violations changing the culture in a positive direction? How does one believe in the coach who does this?
Do you really think he’s the only coach that called someone to soon? Good grief it’s not like he gave the kids parents a house or anything.
While I think it is honorable for Ozzie to self-report ….. he actually admitted that he knew the rules full well, and basically, he did it anyway. And he knew all along he shouldn’t have done it. He knew he was breaking the rules and admitted same. “Acknowledged he was aware he was engaged in impermissible conduct.” Wait, whut??
How is he not fired?
News Flash: NCAA coach violates recruiting rules — and it’s for swimming, not FOOTBALL!
And at SMU! The horror …
Damn, that was quick, no?