LSU Football Self-Imposes Penalties, Bans Odell Beckham Jr. from Facilities

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LSU is self-imposing penalties for rules violations and hoping the NCAA doesn’t levy more.

The school is docking itself eight football scholarships over a two-year period and reducing recruiting visits, evaluations and communication after a nearly two-year investigation uncovered booster payments to the father of a football player, sources tell Sports Illustrated. The school is banning from its facilities for two years ex-LSU receiver and current NFL star Odell Beckham Jr., who distributed $2,000 worth of $100 bills during a wild scene that unfolded on the field following LSU’s win over Clemson in the national championship game in the New Orleans Superdome.

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According to previous correspondence between the school and NCAA, LSU believes its violations are Level 1 in nature, which is the most serious of the NCAA’s infraction ladder. However, there are three degrees within Level 1: aggravated, standard and mitigated. LSU’s self-imposed penalties are typical for a Level 1 mitigated, which normally does not carry a postseason ban according to the NCAA's sanction matrix. Aggravated and standard Level 1 violations carry, at the very least, a one-year postseason ban.

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The father of former offensive lineman Vadal Alexander received $180,000 in stolen money from LSU booster John Paul Funes, who admitted in 2019 that he embezzled more than half a million dollars from Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge. The money was payment from 2012 to 2017 for what the NCAA characterized as a “no-show job.”

• Beckham’s cash payments to players immediately after the Tigers won the championship. LSU officials initially told reporters that Beckham was handing out fake money, but later retracted that assertion after quarterback Joe Burrow acknowledged in an interview that the cash was real. LSU said the payments totaled $2,000, a Level III violation.

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