Former University of Kentucky swimming and diving head coach Lars Jorgensen “violated head coach responsibility and practice rules,” the NCAA said in handing down its official December ruling.
Jorgensen, who is facing a separate civil suit over allegations that he sexually assaulted at least two individuals: a former team staffer, and another former team captain and assistant coach, was given a three-year show-cause order restricting him from all athletically related activities with the NCAA.
As part of the show-cause order, he would have to serve a suspension for 50% of the first year of his employment if any NCAA institution that employs Jorgensen during the three year term.
The case accused Jorgensen and his staff of exceeding maximum practice hours for nearly three years, including not providing required weekly days off or required flex days off.
The infractions panel noted that the culture fostered by Jorgensen
emphasized “going above and beyond to produce swimmers who could compete at the highest levels” and viewed CARA requirements as “obstacles to excellence rather than an avenue to achieve success and excellence holistically, by allowing appropriate time to focus on physical, mental and emotional well-being.”
Under NCAA rules that took effect in January 2023, Jorgensen is automatically responsible for the violations that occurred within his program after that date.
The infractions committee also held him responsible for violations before that date, saying that “he could not rebut the presumption of responsibility due to his personal involvement in the violations and his failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance and monitor his staff.”
The violations were classified as Level II-aggravated for Jorgensen.
The school already reduced the term of the 2024-2025 swimming & diving season from 144 to 138 days, banning all countable activities for the first week of the 2024 fall term, and were required to add 10 flex days for swimming and diving student-athletes for the 2024-2025 season.
Jorgensen resigned as head coach in June 2023 and received a $75,000 settlement from the university.
The infractions committee also involved violations by Kentucky’s football program, which for its part will pay a self-imposed fine of $5,000 and an additional fine equal to %10 of the “gross payout received by the SEC as a result of Kentucky’s participation in the 2022 Citrus Bowl,” plus the required vacation of individual and team results in which ineligible student-athletes participated. That case involved student-athletes possibly receiving compensation for work not performed at Kentucky’s Albert B. Chandler Hospital.
Alleged Assaults
The first alleged assault dates back to December of 2013, at a team Christmas party that Jorgensen hosted at his house. A former swim team staffer told The Athletic that Jorgensen forced her into his bedroom and raped her. He is accused of continuing to abuse the staffer over the next two years and telling her that nobody would believe her if she told anyone. She ultimately left in 2016 for a job at a “less prominent program.”
One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit is Briggs Alexander, a former team captain and an assistant coach with the Wildcats. The complaint claims that Jorgensen “groomed” Alexander during her time on the women’s team from 2014-18.
“Jorgensen isolated Alexander, sought to gain her trust, strove to control every facet of her life, and repeatedly made sexualized comments in an attempt to desensitize sexual topics,” says the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
In December of 2019, after the team’s annual Christmas party at Jorgensen’s house, Alexander alleges that Jorgensen forced her into his bedroom, pinned her down by the wrists, and raped her. She also described three more sexual assaults while working as a volunteer assistant coach (2019-20) and assistant coach (2020-22) and a fourth that allegedly occurred in April of 2023, almost a year after resigning in May of 2022.
Alexander now identifies as male, but the lawsuit uses gender pronouns that align with his transition timeline so readers can understand “who I was in the moment when I was being abused.”
He had the same violations at Toledo and has a known track record of grooming the young ladies. So how is not on the Safe Sport list and how did avoid deeper penalties? Just shows you that the NCAA doesn’t care about athlete safety in a sport that doesn’t earn them money…
There’s a lot to unpack here.
1) Lars is on the SafeSport list
2) It is unrelated to the NCAA process
3) The NCAA is outside of the SafeSport mandate and has its own health and safety procedures
4) This is a separate matter unrelated to his abuse that does need to be adjudicated. Adjudicating violations of practice time rules does not mean that they are ignoring the issues of abuse.
Imagine if the NCAA investigated the top 5 programs.
I don’t think many programs would be at or under the weekly limit. Though they probably would be better at creating “optional” practices and “flex” days to be compliant.
The panel noted that Lars went “above and beyond to produce swimmers who could compete at the highest level.” Seems complimentary.
Yeah, I had to go back a read that to get the context. They could have worded that better to get the point across. Maybe added “the rules” after beyond.
He’s coaching at IU now? Typical Ray, anything to “win”
Ahh, a nice lil slap on the wrist
I wonder why Riley Gaines isn’t all over Fox News making noise about the sexual predator coach… If it was really about her “safety,” you would think this is the more significant threat.
Why bite the hand that fed you?
Pick-me Riley Gaines continues in one of the longest Fox auditions on record. Whatever she says, Fox is her intended target.
I do honestly wonder how she pivots her career now that her political influencer topic has been addressed?
OF?
Future pardon recipient?
A president can only pardon federal convictions and crimes. Can’t pardon state convictions or private organization adjudications.
In the above picture, Jorgensen looks a little like Malcolm McDowell in Clockwork Orange. (Coincidence?)
Just a bit of the old ultra-violence!