NCAA hands down ruling on Will Wade, LSU men's basketball and football teams
By: Sheldon Mickles and Wilson Alexander - Nola.comThe long-awaited ruling on LSU's infractions case regarding alleged recruiting violations within the men's basketball and football programs was handed down Thursday morning.
Former Tigers basketball coach Will Wade, who is now the head coach at McNeese State, was given a 10-game suspension and two-year show-cause order from the NCAA’s Independent Accountability Resolution Panel to finally bring the four-year case to a close.
Wade’s top assistant at LSU, associate head coach Bill Armstrong, did not receive any penalties from the IARP’s ruling. The decisions are final and cannot be appealed.
LSU, which had its men's basketball and football programs lumped together in the case, did not receive a postseason ban or get hit with lack of institutional control. The teams are both on probation for three years.
LSU received a notice of allegations in March 2022 that outlined 11 alleged violations against the men’s basketball and football programs. That led four days later to the firings of Wade and Armstrong.
Eight violations were Level I infractions, the most severe that can be assessed by the NCAA, and seven of those pertained to men's basketball. Wade was identified in six of the seven Level I allegations; Armstrong was named in one along with a Level II violation.
The NOA suggested they could both receive show-cause penalties, which is the harshest penalty a coach can receive from the NCAA.
Wade, who coached LSU for five seasons, was hired March 12 by McNeese. The official announcement came a year to the day of his firing by LSU for cause.
As part of his contract with McNeese, Wade was suspended for the first five games of the 2023-24 season regardless of any punishment that would be handed down by the NCAA.
The NCAA ruling handed down Thursday state that Wade will be sidelined for the first 10 games of McNeese's season.
In interviews with the investigative unit regarding the basketball program, Wade denied the allegations.
The LSU men’s basketball and football programs shared an additional Level I allegation that said the school “failed to exercise institutional control and monitor the conduct and administration of its football and men's basketball programs” from February 2012 through June 2020, a period that spanned former football coaches Les Miles and Ed Orgeron.
Wade was suspended for 37 days at end of the 2018-19 season after Yahoo Sports detailed a wiretapped conversation between him and now-convicted middleman Christian Dawkins.
The conversation recorded by the FBI included Wade openly speaking about a "strong-ass offer" he made in the recruitment of former LSU guard and Baton Rouge native Javonte Smart in 2017.
That specific allegation, a Level I violation, was outlined in the NOA as the first of the seven charges against the men's basketball team.
At the time, Wade wasn’t suspended because of the reports, but rather because he and his legal counsel declined to meet with LSU and NCAA officials regarding the reports.
Wade’s alleged insubordination and failure to cooperate spanned much longer than his suspension, according to the NOA, which was also a Level I violation.
During the NCAA’s investigation, Wade “violated the NCAA principles of ethical conduct and failed to cooperate in the investigation” of numerous allegations, including four violations outlined in the NOA and "a number of other allegations" the NCAA wasn't able to fully substantiate.
Wade was also accused of paying money to an unnamed former fiancée of an LSU athlete in exchange for her silence regarding Wade’s payments to players.
In another allegation, he was alleged to have made payments of an unknown sum in April 2018 to an unnamed man for his services to act as an impermissible recruiter for an unnamed player.
The Level I allegation involving Armstrong came after Wade’s suspension. Between February and June 2020, Armstrong was alleged to have offered $300,000 in cash in an effort to get an unnamed international athlete to commit to LSU.
Additionally, Armstrong was alleged to have promised a car for the athlete’s cousin, a scholarship for a friend, and assistance in securing Visas for the player and/or his family and other associates in an effort to get the athlete to commit.
According to the NOA, this was done with Wade’s knowledge and was a Level I violation that could have commanded a show-cause penalty for Armstrong, who last season led Link Academy of Branson, Missouri, to the national high school title.
Wade was also levied with an additional Level I violation because he was deemed responsible for the specific misconduct pertaining to impermissible benefits to prospective players and/or close to them.
The Level II allegation included both Wade and Armstrong, who were said to have had an impermissible in-person contact with the parents of a recruit.
While the notice of allegations focused on potential violations committed by Wade, the document included previously reported charges against the football program.
The document included the allegation that John Paul Funes provided $180,150 worth of embezzled funds from Our Lady of the Lake hospitals to the family of former LSU offensive lineman Vadal Alexander, a Level I violation.
"LSU had a heightened obligation to monitor his interactions with any student-athletes or their families," the IARP said. "The institution failed to do so. Therefore, the hearing panel found a violation for LSU for failure to monitor the activities of a representative of athletics interests."
The football program was also charged with a Level II violation for an incident after the 2019 national championship game when former LSU wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. handed out $2,000 in cash to four players, and the NCAA alleged Orgeron had impermissible contact with a recruit before the completion of the player’s junior year, a Level III violation.
In response, LSU cut eight scholarships over a two-year period, reduced recruiting visits and banned Beckham from the facility for two years. The school then self-imposed a one-year bowl ban in 2020 for a team with a 3-5 record at the time.
"The hearing panel also applied significant weight to LSU’s self-imposed penalties, especially the 2020-21 postseason competition ban for its football program," the IARP decision noted.
The notice of allegations noted LSU “reacted quickly to the discovery of the football violations, accepted responsibility and implemented penalties that included disassociating from the representatives of its athletics interests,” meaning Funes and Beckham.
However, LSU’s men’s basketball and football infractions cases were sent jointly to the IARP in September 2020, tying the allegations of the two programs into one case.
