NC State receives Notice of Allegations from NCAA that includes a pair of Level I violations

Well, folks, here we go. NC State received a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA on July 9 pertaining the recruitment of former point guard Dennis Smith Jr. These allegations include a pair of Level I violations (those are the most severe) and a pair of Level II violations.

If you would like to read the NOA, you can do so here. The Level I violations pertain to former assistant coach Orlando Early and former head coach Mark Gottfried. The NCAA on Early’s violations:

And Gottfried’s:

As the NCAA states in the NOA, the severity of these violations could lead to each coach with a show-cause penalty, which would ban them from college athletics for a set number of years. (Kevin Ollie recently got a three-year show-cause.)

NC State was also hit with a Level II failure to monitor violation, which would likely be the basis for any sanctions to the program.

There are no allegations of wrongdoing by any coach on the current men’s basketball staff—everything cited in the notice occurred under Mark Gottfried’s watch.

NC State issued a statement this evening, and here is a key part of it:

All four allegations are tied to former coaches who were well educated about the rules and knew the rules, and if the allegations are true, those coaches chose to break the rules. No current coaches are named or implicated in the allegations.

The Notice of Allegations is the expected next step in an NCAA process following the federal government’s inquiry into college basketball. NC State received a verbal Notice of Inquiry from the NCAA in October 2018. NC State has voluntarily and fully cooperated, and will continue to fully cooperate, with the NCAA throughout this process.

The biggest things working in NC State’s favor: that the violations occurred under a previous staff, and that the school has cooperated with the NCAA during the investigation. That last part is extremely important, because nothing discourages the NCAA from leniency like being uncooperative.

Much more to come.