I don’t understand: Why did the SEC hit LSU with recruiting violations?

I’ve been looking at this for a while now, and I still can’t understand why LSU was hit with recruiting violations fines by the SEC.

According to the SEC, LSU prospect Matt Womack signed a financial aid agreement with the Tigers, only to back out of the deal, de-commit, and go to Alabama instead.

Because there had been an arrangement where recruits who signed a financial aid agreement with a school could be contacted by that school on an unlimited fashion (yeah, we’re confused right here!), LSU obviously contacted Womack heavily….and now he’s gone to Tuscaloosa, the SEC found that that contact had been illegal.

Illegal why? Because a financial aid agreement’s not the same as a National Letter of Intent, according to Ross Dellenger of The Advocate.

LSU’s was given a fine that meant 10% of its recruiting evaluation days were cut (according to public records picked by The Advocate, the paper says) for something it unknowingly did, meaning that the school loses 17 Spring days and 17 fall days, according to the paper. “During the same time, other schools can sign prospects to FAAs, thus receiving unlimited contact with them,” Dellenger noted. We’d like to add: “Eesh.”

MY TAKE: Sorry, is this LSU’s fault that Womack backed out of a deal and decided for Alabama? I blame Les Miles for a lot of things – including his crappy selections at quarterback over the last few years as well as his clock management – but no-one can blame LSU for this. This whole thing stinks of administrative screw-up from the SEC’s point-of-view, and Geaux Tigers are geuaxing to suffer from it.