UPDATE: Wade will be able to coach Cowboys during practices, preseason camp

Published 1:19 pm Thursday, June 22, 2023

The long-awaited NCAA ruling on Will Wade finally came down Thursday morning.

McNeese State’s first-year basketball coach was suspended for 10 games and given a two-year show-cause order that will limit his recruiting.

With the decision by the NCAA’s Independent Accountability Resolution Panel, the five-year case against Wade while he was at LSU finally comes to a close.

Wade declined to comment when reached by the American Press Thursday morning saying. He has maintained that his focus was only on his players, this team, and the upcoming season.

The IARP decision is final. Wade has always denied the allegations against him.

No decision has been made yet as to which of Wade’s assistants will coach those first 10 games. Wade will be able to coach the Cowboys during practices and preseason camp.

Before signing his contract with McNeese back in March, Wade and the school had already agreed on a five-game suspension and one year of recruiting limits in hopes of showing the NCAA the parties were acting in good faith.

LSU had both its men’s basketball and football programs put in the same case but did not receive any major punishments by the NCAA.

Wade was fired by LSU just days after the school received a notice of allegations in March of 2022  just prior to the NCAA tournament. McNeese hired Wade to replace John Aiken last March, a year to the day after he was let go in Baton Rouge.

Wade has been given the task of turning around a McNeese program that was coming off an all-time low with 23 losses, a season record. Some believed Wade would get at least as much as a one-year suspension so 10 games are beginning considered a victory on the McNeese campus.
“We accept and respect today’s decision by the IARP in regards to Coach Wade,” McNeese Athletic Director Heath Schroyer said. “We are happy this is behind us we and have clarity moving forward.

“We have been proactive in respecting the NCAA process and protecting the integrity of our institution. That will not change moving forward. We are all excited moving forward with the future of this program and with Coach Wade leading the way.”

Since coming to McNeese Wade has been a boom for the struggling program that hasn’t had a winning season since 2012. Ticket sales have soared and interest in Cowboy basketball is at what appears to be an all-time high.

The AIRP’s release stated Wade “committed multiple violations, including failing to report potential NCAA violations, providing impermissible cash payments to impede disclosure of information of potential NCAA violations in contradiction to NCAA unethical conduct legislation, and failing to cooperate with the infractions investigation.

“The hearing panel also found that the former head men’s basketball coach violated the head coach responsibility rules by failing to promote an atmosphere of compliance within the men’s basketball program.”

The case against Wade began as part of a federal corruption investigation into college basketball back in 2017 that touched several big programs.

Wade’s name surfaced in 2019 when reports of leaked excerpts from an FBI wiretap captured the then-LSU coach talking about making a “strong” offer to a party supposedly representing a player, Javonte Smart.

Since coming to McNeese Wade has already turned the roster over mainly through the transfer portal. Only four scholarship players remain from last season’s team.

Specific punishments imposed on Will Wade:

• No off-campus recruiting-related activities during any applicable April or summer evaluation and/or contact period

• Reduction in official visits by four each during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years

• No recruiting conversations between Sept. 1, 2023, and Oct. 15, 2023, and Sept. 1, 2024, and Oct. 15, 2024

• No unofficial visits from Sept. 1, 2023, through Oct. 15, 2023, and Sept. 1, 2024, and Oct. 15, 2024

• Suspension from the first 10 contests of the first season of any Division I employment, which shall not include exhibitions or practice scrimmages