NC State Doesn’t Look to Be in Violation

Earlier today, Powell Latimer of the Greensboro News & Record, posted an article titled: “Gottfried’s visit to Smith, Adebayo with journalists present might be NCAA violation.”

NCAA rules say NC State hoops may have committed minor NCAA violation in recent recruiting visit. (#State says nope.) http://t.co/yJnpxQma3P

— Powell Latimer (@PowellLatimerNR) September 14, 2015

Powell is a graduate from the University of North Carolina, and used to write for the The Daily Tarheel.  In the piece, Powell points out the fact that Gottfried recruiting in the presence of media could be an NCAA violation.  He did point out that if it were a violation, it would be minor and would likely not result in penalties against the school or affect a player’s eligibility.  

“If a coach shows up for an in-house visit and media is present at the request of the recruit or high school, the coach is not permitted to speak with the recruit in the presence of the media,” NCAA spokesman Tom Yelich wrote in an email. (News&Record)

Powell did make it clear that NC State in no way orchestrated the attendance of media members, and even makes the point that he isn’t sure what Gottfried could have done differently.  He reached out to NC State, and Steve Shults, Assistant Athletics Director of Compliance, had this to say: 

“In our situation, the media member was present without our knowledge or involvement,” Shults wrote by email. “Had our coaches known media was present, then they would have ended the contact immediately in order to avoid a violation.” (News&Record)

Brett Strelow, one of the media members that was present at Trinity Christian when the helicopter landed, wrote a piece in response, and did make it very clear that his presence at the school had nothing to do with NC State contacting him.

The Fayetteville Observer learned of the plan for a helicopter visit from people associated with Trinity Christian School, not N.C. State, and did not coordinate photo or video plans with anyone connected to the university. (FayObserver)

Strelow also took to Twitter to accept responsibility for his part in this. 

On my end, I accept fault for not knowing NCAA rules as well as I should have w/ regard to contact at high school, not the college campus — Bret Strelow (@bretstrelow) September 14, 2015

Lastly, will also say, to my knowledge, our two photographers at the event have never covered an ACC hoops game or had met any State coaches

— Bret Strelow (@bretstrelow) September 14, 2015

There was a camera present, as they were swarmed after meetup, but with crowd present, can’t speak to others knowing ID of everyone

— Bret Strelow (@bretstrelow) September 14, 2015

I can’t help myself in finding it a tad humorous that this all got started today by a graduate of UNC.  Also, I find it really respectable that Strelow honestly and vulnerably shared his side of the story.  Lastly, this whole story reveals the need for NCAA rules to be catch up with the existence of social media, camera phones, and how much more broad the term “media” has grown since 1997 when the rule was last amended.  While there obviously need to be rules that protect the players and the integrity of the process, coaches also need to be able to do their jobs, and it looks like Coach Gottfried and Coach Early were doing their jobs…by the book.