Antonio Pierce receives 8-year penalty in ASU football recruiting investigation

Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce has been issued a penalty from the NCAA from his time coaching at Arizona State.

Pierce was the defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator at ASU. The penalties are related to recruiting improprieties during the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020. Also receiving a penalty was support staff member Anthony Garnett.

Pierce got an eight-year show-cause penalty while Garnett got a five-year. As an NFL coach, the penalty wouldn't affect Pierce unless he were to return to college coaching.

A show-cause penalty is an administrative punishment ordering that any NCAA penalties imposed on a coach found to have committed major rule violations will stay in effect against that coach for a specified period of time — and could also be transferred to any other NCAA-member school that hires the coach. While a show-cause does not prohibit a school from hiring that coach, it makes it more improbable.

With that sanction in effect, the school and coach must send letters to the NCAA agreeing to abide by any restrictions imposed. They must also report to the NCAA every six months until either the end of the coach's employment or the show-cause penalty, whichever comes first. The penalty is intended to prevent a coach from escaping punishment for violations committed by resigning and taking another job.

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Former ASU head coach Herm Edwards, who Pierce worked under, was issued a five-year show cause stemming from violations in the same investigation. That is also unlikely to impact him since he is now working for ESPN.

Pierce is the second NFL head coach handed a show-cause, the other being Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh who was given one at the end of his tenure at Michigan.

The ruling on Pierce was issued Thursday by the Division I Committee on Infractions panel.

Rulings on others in the ASU case, including Edwards, were issued in April. The former head coach along with receivers coach Prentice Gill, defensive backs coach Chris Hawkins, and offensive coordinator Zak Hill had their cases resolved in the negotiated resolution, agreeing to facts, violations, and penalties in the case. The negotiated resolution allowed the school to start dealing with sanctions while awaiting the committee's final decision for the parties who contested their violations. The case for Pierce and Garnett was resolved by a written record hearing.

Also contesting their cases and having them resolved separately were defensive line coach Robert Rodriguez, assistant coach Derek Hagan, and assistant equipment manager Eric Bowman.

The NCAA report said the violations were the result of a plan in which Pierce, other members of the football staff, and a "booster" arranged unofficial visits to the school during the COVID-19 dead period in which those visits were prohibited. The visits occurred over 15 weekends and included tryouts, tours of the football facility, and entertainment and are said to have been for 35 prospects and their families.

The booster is identified as Regina Jackson, mother of former quarterback Jayden Daniels , who later transferred to LSU where he won a Heisman Trophy and was drafted No. 1 overall to the Washington Commanders.

The report said:

"Pierce arranged for or personally provided free meals, apparel, airfare and/or lodging for 27 prospects, often in collaboration with the booster, who was the parent of a then-football student-athlete in the program. In addition to violating the dead period rules, the meals, entertainment — which included taking a prospect's parents to a gentlemen's club — and travel expenses associated with the unofficial visits also constituted impermissible recruiting inducements. As a result of the impermissible benefits received by the prospects, eight who eventually enrolled at Arizona State went on to compete in 19 contests while ineligible.

Garnett facilitated a tryout, directed impermissible transportation and had in-person recruiting contacts with prospects and their families. The two also traveled out of state to observe prospects in workouts or competitions and then met with recruits and their families.

Pierce also directed an assistant coach to text and call a student-athlete then enrolled at another school and not yet in the transfer portal. The assistant coach sent the student-athlete 46 text messages and called him at least once, but the student-athlete did not transfer to ASU.

Pierce did not fully cooperate in the investigation. He reportedly participated in an interview with enforcement staff and acknowledged some facts surrounding the unofficial visits, but consistently denied planning or arranging any portion of the visits, providing recruiting inducements, or participating in the out-of-state contacts and evaluations. He also failed to provide pertinent financial documentation requested by the enforcement staff.

Garnett acknowledged his role in conducting a tryout with a prospect and participating in other recruiting contacts during the unofficial visits. However, he failed to meet his obligation to cooperate when he denied other aspects of his conduct despite significant record information to the contrary.

Edwards departed three games into the 2022 season and running backs coach Shaun Aguano was elevated to interim coach.

Kenny Dillingham was named head coach after that 2022 season and has been left to pick up the pieces. The school took a self-imposed bowl ban last season and has dealt with scholarship restrictions, as well as reduced time on the recruiting trail and limited contact with student-athletes.

The core penalties included:

• Four years of probation from April 15, 2024 to April 14, 2028
• Self-imposed bowl ban following 2023 season
• Fine of $5,000 plus 1% of the budget for the football program
• Reduced official paid visits in the football program by 14 during the 2022-2023 academic year and one during 2023-2024. That total of 15 is 27% of the permissible number of paid visits.
• Reduced the number of unofficial visits by one week in 2022-2023 and one week in 2023-2024 (self-imposed). The school also prohibited unofficial visits for four additional weeks in the 2023-2024 academic year.
• Reduced recruiting communications in the football program for one week during August 2023 (self-imposed). The school prohibited recruiting communications for an additional four weeks in the 2023-2024 academic year.
• Reduced number of fall recruiting in-person days in football in the 2022-2023 year by seven (self-imposed).
• Reduced the number of recruiting in-person days in the spring of 2022 by 18 (self-imposed). Did the same by three for the 2023-2024 year.

The show-cause penalty for Bowman is 8 years. Gill 5 years, Hagan 10 years, Hawkins 4 years, Hill 3 years, and Rodriguez 8 years.

Some actions ASU took early mitigated some potential penalties. Among the others were not letting staff go off-campus for recruiting purposes for the first nine days of the 2022 contact period and reducing the football camp dates by two during the summer of 2022

(This story was updated to add new information.)

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Antonio Pierce receives 8-year penalty in ASU football recruiting investigation