NCAA Cites "Lack of Institutional Control" Within LSU Athletic Department
The long awaited Notice of Allegations against the LSU athletic department has officially been released by the NCAA and includes the dreaded words "lack of institutional control."
In the NOA, the men's basketball program was hit with seven Level I violations while the football program was also given one Level I violation. There are several violations in the notice of allegations that led to Wade's firing and the NCAA's use of "lack of institutional control" claim for over eight years.
In addition to the highly publicized "strong ass offer" Wade wire tap recording in reference to Javonte Smart, what also appeared in the NOA was Wade allegedly made payments from a joint account with his wife as well as numerous other Level I violations.
As part of the new information in the NOA, Wade was also found to have "violated the principles of ethical conduct and provided impermissible cash payments to the former fiancée of a student-athlete in order to buy her silence regarding prior and current impermissible inducements to student-athletes."
Wade was also accused of making direct payments to an unnamed person for their influence on a particular player's college decision according to the NOA.
As for the football portion of the NOA, the NCAA investigation was just about wrapped before the Odell Beckham Jr. situation where he handed out money to players after the national championship entered the equation. The other part of the allegations was $180,000 allegedly paid to former LSU defensive lineman Vadal Alexander's father.
Throughout the NOA, the NCAA did state the football program was compliant with the investigation, took responsibility for and enacted its own penalties with the eight scholarship reduction over two seasons.
In a letter issued by President William Tate and Athletic Director Scott Woodward, the two stated "our decision to terminate Coach Wade and Coach Armstrong is not an acknowledgement of agreement with any of the allegations."
Why is a "lack of institutional control" claim so serious? A lack of institutional control claim can eventually turn into a a myriad of more serious violations to hit the athletic department when the Notice of Violations are ultimately handed out.
LSU had worked very hard for the football and basketball programs separate to keep that "lack of institutional control" and likely be a point of contention in the response by moving on from Wade. But the NCAA will push forward with that claim and the only thing that can be done now is wait for the response from LSU and subsequent violations thrown at the athletic department by the NCAA.
