McNeese State announces newly-hired coach Will Wade will serve 5-game suspension to begin tenure

Alex Weberby:Alex Weber•03/14/23

Former maligned LSU hoops coach Will Wade signed on as the head coach at McNeese State recently following the conclusion of their season. Of course, most folks remember that Wade left LSU not for basketball reasons, but for violating a slew of NCAA rules. As a result, he is still awaiting punishment from the NCAA after having his own personal case heard in February. Since his violations were pretty severe, even though he was fired, Wade is still expected to face punishment.

So McNeese State is trying to get ahead of the curb and will suspend Will Wade for the first five games of the season as a way to signal their compliance with the NCAA on the pending punishment for their new coach. AP writer Jim Gazzolo was first to report the news.

He also added a list of other recruiting restrictions the school will voluntarily put in place to further show their cooperation with the whole situation. Those restrictions are the following, according to Gazzolo:

(COACH refers to Wade)

  • McNeese will hire, and COACH shall work with, an additional compliance officer to ensure the strict compliance of NCAA rules.
  • COACH shall submit a weekly report on all recruiting activities, which will include phone calls, texts etc. This weekly report will be submitted to Ms. Bridget Martin, Deputy Athletic Director for compliance or her replacement designated by Director. The Athletic Department will forward this weekly report to the Southland Conference league office.
  • COACH and his staff shall participate in mandatory weekly NCAA compliance education classes conducted by Ms. Bridget Martin, Deputy Athletic Director for compliance or her replacement designated by Director.
  • COACH shall not be permitted to have any off campus recruiting related activities from date of hire through July 31 of 2023.
  • COACH shall reduce official visits by 4 during the 2023/2024 academic years.
  • COACH shall be banned from all recruiting conversations between September 2023 through October 15 2023.
  • COACH shall be banned from having any unofficial visits from September 2023 through October 15 2023.