Discipline in College Football: Why Not Just Fine the Player?

This weekend, we saw two notable disciplinary situations come out of college football. Most notably, in the high-profile matchup between Oregon and USC, Trojans linebacker Desman Stephens was ejected for targeting. Stephens’s hit was ruled late and aimed at the head of Oregon quarterback Dante Moore, who was knocked out and stretchered into an ambulance that took him from the stadium to the hospital. The controversy became even larger than just a dirty hit when Stephens appeared to celebrate and taunt Moore while he was receiving urgent medical attention on the field. According to On3, Stephens apologized after the game and USC head coach Lincoln Riley called the conduct unacceptable before laying down a one game suspension on his linebacker. The same day, South Carolina also had a disciplinary issue after defensive end Dylan Stewart punched an Alabama player in the helmet. According to the Associated Press, South Carolina suspended Stewart indefinitely for his actions, and his return is at the discretion of head coach Shane Beamer. 

When taking this in, it was easy to imagine that an NFL player would almost certainly be facing a substantial fine and suspension from the league if he did what Desman Stephens did. That leads to an interesting question: Can a college football program, conference, or the NCAA as a whole simply fine a player for misconduct? According to Christine Brown & Partners, a sports law firm, college athletes generally cannot have arbitrary monetary fines imposed on them in the same way that professional teams and leagues fine their players. This does not mean college athletes cannot face discipline, it just means that the forms of punishment available are different. 

The difference between college football and the NFL is obviously employment status, but this gets murky and hotly debated now that college athletes are making money. NFL players are employees, so their discipline is governed by a collectively bargained system between the league and the players’ union. For this reason, financial penalties are imposed based under the labor agreement, as opposed to a coach deciding a player needs to be financially punished. Since college football does not operate under an employment-based collective bargaining structure, the discipline has to be different. Coaches can still suspend players or bench them, even removing them from team activities, for example. The situations with Desman Stephens and Dylan Stewart over the weekend are a good example of what discipline typically looks like in the NCAA. 

Now that things are different in the NCAA, it is important to recognize that it is not impossible for college athletes to lose money because of misconduct, it is just not allowed for a coach or conference to simply announce an NFL-style fine and deduct money from an athlete’s compensation. According to Christine Brown & Partners, any financial consequence involving a player’s revenue-sharing compensation would depend on the terms of the athlete’s agreement and the applicable rules. USC or the Big 10 Conference could not simply decide that Stephens must lose $25,000 because of the hit, but if his contractual agreement contained a provision allowing compensation to be reduced for certain misconduct, that opens the door for the institution to potentially financially penalize him. 

The “loophole” that makes the NCAA different from professional sports in this sense is that third-party NIL money is separate. Third-party compensation does not belong to the university, the coach, or the conference. According to Christine Brown & Partners, a school generally cannot simply take away an athlete’s outside NIL earnings as punishment. However, much like the individual revenue sharing agreements, these often include contracts, so the company paying the athlete may have contractual rights of its own. It is not uncommon for an NIL agreement to contain a morality, conduct, or termination clause that allows a sponsor to drop the athlete and end the relationship after certain behavior. Most NIL deals are not public, so we do not know what Desman Stephens’s NIL portfolio looks like, but that is a way for him to see financial punishment for his actions without it being a “fine” per se, and certainly not coming from the institution. That would be a case of a private company enforcing a contract provision. 

As far as the NCAA goes, there is an enforcement process in place, but it is distinguished from ordinary team discipline. According to the NCAA, its Division I infractions process can include investigation, formal allegations, hearings, penalties, and appeals, depending on the type and seriousness of the violation. Institutional infractions are also distinguished from eligibility questions. In the cases of Desman Stephens and Dylan Stewart, rather than a traditional NCAA infractions case, the most immediate punishment came from the rules during the game (targeting/throwing a punch) as well as follow up by their own institutions and coaches. 

In the current state of college football, the issue is very interesting. College athletes now receive compensation through revenue sharing and NIL, with some being compensated significantly. Ten years ago, the idea of asking whether a coach could “fine” a player would have made little to no sense. According to the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, the growth of direct athlete compensation has intensified the larger debate over employment status for college athletes, ditching the amateurism title and treating them as employees since they are compensated. If college athletes are eventually operating under an employment and collective bargaining model, financial discipline could look very similar to professional sports leagues like the NFL. For now, college football is operating in a strange middle ground where athletes are earning substantial money, but they are not really able to be disciplined with fines. 

The immediate contrast here is seen clearly when you observe what the NFL has fined players for so far this season. NFL players can receive fines for conduct far less serious than Stephens’s hit and actions afterward. NFL players have been fined for celebrations, equipment, messaging – all things with no injury involved. This makes it natural to assume Stephens should see some sort of major financial penalty. Legally, though, the important question is not simply whether his conduct deserves a fine, but who has the authority to impose one and why. 

College football teams have their own disciplinary tools, like we see here with suspensions and loss of playing time, but what they cannot do is invent a dollar amount to penalize a player for misconduct. As mentioned before, the most impactful financial penalties that could be seen for someone like Desman Stephens will likely be privately handled and only occur if his contracts with USC for revenue sharing and with any third party that pays him NIL have conduct clauses written in. As close as college sports and professional sports are looking financially in 2026, things are still clearly different as far as discipline goes. For now, the most valuable thing that can be taken away publicly is the opportunity to play.