Antonio Pierce gets punished by NCAA over violations

Antonio Pierce was handed an eight-year show-cause order over violations that happened during his time as an assistant coach at Arizona State, which included “taking a prospect’s parents to a gentlemen’s club.”

The NCAA made the announcement Thursday, finding that Pierce orchestrated a “scheme” to work around recruiting restrictions that had been in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The punishment doesn’t impact Pierce, who resigned from his position at ASU prior to the 2022 season, unless he attempts to return to coach in college football.

Should an NCAA school hire him during the show-cause order, Pierce would be suspended for the first football season in which he would not be allowed any contact with any of the coaches or players.

3 Antonio Pierce coaches a game for the Raiders during the 2024 season. AP

3 Antonio Pierce is pictured before an Arizona State football game in 2021. AP

The NCAA order runs until Oct. 2, 2032.

Pierce, other football staffers and a booster are said to have set up unofficial visits for “roughly one year” during the COVID dead period where staff had “had impermissible recruiting contacts — including tryouts, football facility tours and entertainment — with 35 prospects and their families.”

The report continued that the now-Raiders coach is said to have “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.”

Former booster Regina Jackson, the mother of Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels, is mentioned numerous times in the 67-page report released by the NCAA as having assisted with the impermissible campus visits and additional violations.

Among the instances Jackson is purported to have been involved in was the trip to the gentleman’s club, in which a football staff member told the NCAA that they “recalled driving a number of individuals to the club, including Pierce, Garnett, Jackson, a prospect’s parents and another noncoaching staff member.”

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Among the other aspects of the NCAA’s report, was that Pierce is said to have given “false or misleading information” during the investigation and that he wasn’t willing to give financial records to NCAA investigators.

The report also indicated that Pierce had “used his position of authority to pressure staff members into engaging in violations, often by instilling fear that they would lose their jobs if they did not follow his orders.”

Pierce has quickly risen through the coach ranks with the Raiders since leaving ASU.

He was hired as a linebackers coach in 2022 and was given the interim head coaching job in the middle of the last NFL season before ultimately being hired for the job permanently in January.

3 Antonio Pierce and the Raiders have opened the 2024 season with a 2-2 record. Imagn Images

Though things have not gone as Pierce would have liked this season in Las Vegas.

The Raiders have started this season 2-2, and the headlines surrounding the team revolve around star wide receiver Davante Adams looking to depart Sin City.

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