NC State receives word from NCAA on recruiting violations, penalties

The NCAA and its Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP) finally reached a decision on NC State’s recruiting violations Monday, and the Wolfpack received very minor penalties: former head coach Mark Gottfried, under whom the violations took place, received a one-year show-cause penalty, and former assistant coach Orlando Early received a six-year show-cause penalty, but the Wolfpack did not receive any postseason ban.

As a team, the NC State Wolfpack emerged from the violations almost entirely unscathed. According to a 50-plus page document detailing the IARP’s findings, NC State will receive a $5,000 self-imposed fine (0.5% of the 2021-22 men’s basketball budget), a scholarship reduction for the incoming 2022 class by one (bringing the total scholarships down from 13 to 12), a reduction in official visits by one and a one-year probationary period during which NC State must “implement a comprehensive educational program on NCAA legislation,” among other minor penalties. However, NC State will be eligible to compete in postseason play, including the NCAA Tournament, unlike Oklahoma State, which recently received more severe punishments.

NC State’s recruiting violations took place from 2014 to 2017, according to the IARP, under then-head coach Gottfried, who coached the Wolfpack from 2011 until 2017. The IARP concluded that Gottfried and his staff, which included Early, received a $40,000 payment from an apparel company, which Early then distributed to the family of a student-athlete. The apparel company, later identified as Adidas, ultimately helped NC State land Dennis Smith Jr., an NBA first-round draft pick, with the $40,000 payment.

“A jury found that the three apparel company-related individuals made payments to the families of promising prospective student-athletes in the sport of men’s basketball to ensure that they attended apparel company-sponsored universities, in anticipation that these prospective student-athletes would sign with the apparel company when they became professional men’s basketball players,” the document read, in part. “The apparel company, an apparel and equipment manufacturer, was a significant sponsor of NC State’s athletics programs.”

Gottfried received a one-year show-cause penalty, which is an administrative punishment given by the NCAA making it difficult to justify his employment. He was later hired as the head coach at Cal State Northridge in 2018; however, the C-SUN put Gottfried on administrative leave in April, when the NCAA and the IARP began thoroughly investigating his alleged violations at NC State. Now, should Cal State Northridge choose to proceed as such, the university appears to have a route to fire Gottfried with cause.

Early has not been hired by another basketball program since the Gottfried-led staff was let go by NC State in 2017. His six-year show-cause penalty means he could be out of college basketball for a long time — and perhaps even longer, given how difficult it may be to get a new job.