It's likely that I've not sifted through everything but I wasn't 100% clear that what Lee did that was an NCAA violation so I poked around. My skepticism was due to Lee (I'm assuming he's a booster for the sake of argument), having not contacted any student-athletes directly but rather their parents. The NCAA has no shortage of restrictions against coach and booster contact of the parents of student athletes, but most of those restrictions pertain explicitly to HS students because that's where most of the policing needs to happen.
But for a potential transfer like, say, Austin O'Connor--he
isn't a HS student and has more presumed autonomy than a HS student. His parents are no longer guardians, as is almost always the case with a HS student, so there would seem to be less need to police conversations his parents and boosters from opposing schools. In theory at least, his parents would hold less sway at this point in his life, thus the decreased need for restrictions.
But the NCAA
does indeed restrict such communications, emphasis mine below.
Q7: What happens if a student-athlete had impermissible communications, directly or indirectly, with coaching staff or boosters at the Division I school to which they transfer?
A7: Existing recruiting rules prohibit communication and contact with a student-athlete enrolled at another NCAA school prior to the student-athlete appearing in the NCAA Transfer Portal. These rules also prohibit the indirect use of third parties contacting individuals on the student-athlete’s behalf (e.g., family member, scholastic or no scholastic coach, advisor). Certain violations of these rules can constitute a significant breach of conduct as it relates to the NCAA infractions process. A student-athlete’s eligibility can be jeopardized at the school that engaged in impermissible communication.
So the only meaningful open question to my eye is whether Lee's communications with the parents concerned recruiting. The NCAA can't police conversations about the weather. I've yet to see any evidence that Lee's communications rose to the level of violations, other than some very plausible inferences being drawn here and elsewhere premised on the dearth of likely explanations as to what else they could have been communicating about, which are even more convincing when you look at the names of the wrestlers in question.
While I share those inferences, the NCAA would need something more concrete before hitting Iowa or the student-athletes with violations. Of course, they could simply investigate by asking both parties about the nature of those conversations, but they presently appear wholly disinterested in policing much of anything at this point, so I doubt anything comes of it.
Either way, Lee, especially given his resume, should have known better to trigger all the appearances issues on display here. Perhaps it's like the hubris of a fireman turning arsonist because he figures he can get away with it better than anyone else.
