TEMPE, Ariz. — An NCAA infractions committee has determined that Las Vegas Raiders coach Antonio Pierce “knowingly and blatantly” disregarded and violated recruiting rules during the COVID-19 pandemic while he was Arizona State’s associate head coach and recruiting coordinator.
The NCAA Div. I Committee on Infractions approved an eight-year, show-cause penalty for Pierce, who has since moved on and is in his first full season with the Raiders. If Pierce is hired by an NCAA institution over this stretch, he will be suspended from all activities for his first season of employment. The NCAA’s full report on an investigation that began in the summer of 2021 was released Thursday.
The committee also approved a five-year, show-cause penalty for former football staff member Anthony Garnett. Its report painted a picture of a football program with little oversight and regard for NCAA rules. From July 2020 through May 2021, during the recruiting deal period, the committee found that Pierce and others arranged unofficial visits and had in-person contact with 35 prospects and their families.
Pierce, who is not scheduled to speak to the media until Friday, was not immediately available for comment. A Raiders spokesman declined to comment.
In an interview with NCAA enforcement staff on March 29, 2023, Pierce acknowledged that he met with prospects during the dead period, but added that he did so to help Arizona State keep pace with other schools he felt were doing the same activities, per the NCAA’s report. He told the infractions committee that he “broke the rules to do it, straight forward.”
Pierce coaching on the Arizona State sideline in 2021. (Photo: Jevone Moore / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Pierce, however, consistently denied that he helped arrange payment for those visits or that he reimbursed Arizona State staffers who did. He suggested other staff members used their credit cards to cover visit expenses without his knowledge. Per the NCAA’s report, the enforcement staff twice asked Pierce for copies of financial records that could provide clarity on expenses, and Pierce did not respond.
The infractions committee had first approved a negotiated resolution on Arizona State in April, finding multiple Level I and Level II violations and placing the Arizona State football program on probation for four years. The penalties also included a $5,000 fine (plus 1 percent of the football budget), recruiting restrictions and show-cause penalties for various staff members, including former coach Herm Edwards.
Thursday’s report did not include any additional program penalties.
The report, which ran 67 pages, covered the committee’s full findings, which included details of an October weekend in which Pierce and Garnett directed recruiting staffers to take a group that included a prospect’s parents to a local gentlemen’s club. The committee also found that Pierce, Garnett and other assistants traveled out of state to scout prospects during the dead period. Pierce denied involvement in those visits, per the NCAA report.
Edwards, who left Arizona State by mutual agreement in 2022, has since returned to his job as an ESPN NFL studio analyst. He was given a five-year, show-cause penalty that runs through April 14, 2029. Nearly all the other coaches and staff members have moved on from Arizona State.
Former Arizona State staffers told the committee that Edwards gave full control of the program to Pierce, an assistant the head coach was grooming as his potential replacement. Former receivers coach Prentice Gill told the committee he considered Pierce the program’s head coach. This was not a secret. Pierce was considering a rising coach in the profession, a future head coach.
Edwards told the committee that he was not aware of all of the rules violations, but he admitted that he did not ask pointed questions about the staff’s actions. He also said he met with recruits during the dead period. Per the report, Edwards said he did so to “assuage the concerns of perspective student-athletes” about the pandemic, but he also acknowledged that some violations were intended to gain a recruiting advantage.
Staffers told investigators that Pierce created the scheme to keep recruiting pace with competitors that he thought were doing the same. They said Pierce did not fear NCAA punishment because of his “self-proclaimed” wealth. According to the report, Pierce pressured staff members to work outside the COVID guidelines. Both Gill and former defensive backs coach Chris Hawkins told investigators that they feared for their jobs if they did not fall in line.
The committee determined that Pierce ran a scheme in which he and other staff members, as well as Regina Jackson, the mother of then-Arizona State quarterback Jayden Daniels, arranged unofficial visits for recruits during the dead period. Jackson was given unusual access to the program during her son’s three years at Arizona State, often visiting practice and walking the halls of Arizona State’s football facility.
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Per the report, football staff members had in-person contact with the prospects and their families during dead-period visits. Investigators also found that recruits had impermissible tryouts and facility tours. Pierce arranged or personally provided free meals, apparel, airfare, lodging, local transportation and entertainment expenses for at least 27 prospects, according to the report. At various times, Pierce arranged for and paid for recruits to attend gun shooting clubs, bowling alleys and arcades.
Per the report, the largest visit occurred on the weekend of Oct. 9, 2020. The weekend included off-campus entertainment and facility tours. One prospect stayed at a rented house for two nights at no cost, according to the report. Late one night, Pierce and Garnett informed a staff member that she was needed to take a group that included a prospect’s parents to a gentlemen’s club, per the report.
Jayden Daniels playing for Arizona State in 2021. (Photo: Abbie Parr / Getty Images)
The staffer told Pierce and Garnett she did not want to go, but she told investigators she had to because others would be drinking alcohol and they needed a designated driver. The staff member told the committee that the party, which also included Pierce, Garnett and Jackson, was in the club for about 90 minutes.
Investigators also found that Pierce directed an assistant coach to contact an athlete enrolled at another school, even though the athlete had not yet entered the transfer portal. Over a week, the assistant coach sent the athlete 46 text messages, according to the report. Ultimately, the athlete did not transfer to Arizona State.
Edwards has not commented publicly about his role in the violations. The Athletic contacted the former head coach via text message on April 21, but he did not respond.
Shortly after Edwards left the school, then-vice president of athletics Ray Anderson sent a letter to Edwards, his close friend, detailing the conditions of a mutual agreement that would give Edwards a buyout of around $4 million.
Among the conditions, which were obtained by The Athletic, was that Edwards continued to cooperate with the pending NCAA investigation. It also stated that Edwards could not discuss the specifics of the investigation with anyone other than his attorney or legal advisors.
Arizona State graduate Kenny Dillingham took over the program in 2023. Facing a massive rebuild, the Sun Devils went 3-9 in his first season. This season, Arizona State is off to a 3-1 start. The Sun Devils host Kansas on Saturday.
Tashan Reed contributed to this report.
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