RALEIGH, N.C. _ The response to the NCAA's Notice of Allegations submitted by Mark Gottfried argues the former N.C. State basketball coach has been denied due process and questions the validity of the evidence in the case centered around violations connected to former Wolfpack star Dennis Smith Jr.
Gottfried and his attorneys responded to the NCAA on Monday. The News & Observer obtained a copy of the 41-page rebuttal on Wednesday, via a records request of N.C. State.
Gottfried's response is separate from N.C. State because he is no longer employed by the school (he was fired during the 2016-17 season) and because he is individually assigned a "Level I" violation for a failure to monitor former assistant coach Orlando Early. There are also minor violations related to ticket distribution connected to Early and the NCAA says Gottfried failed to monitor. Gottfried refutes those allegations in the response.
The NCAA has accused Early of being directly involved in a $40,000 payment, provided by a former Adidas associate, to Smith during the recruiting process in 2015. Early was Gottfried's top assistant for six seasons at N.C. State, from 2011 through '17, and therefore Gottfried was responsible for Early's potential violations.
Gottfried, in his second season as the head coach at Cal State-Northridge, faces a potential "show-cause" penalty from the NCAA. His case is on the same timetable as N.C. State's. The NCAA will have 60 days to respond to his response and then a hearing will be scheduled with the Committee on Infractions.
Scott Tompsett, a specialist in NCAA law from Kansas City, and Elliot Abrams, of Cheshire Parker Schneider in Raleigh, prepared Gottfried's response and will represent him at the hearing.
They wrote in their response to the NCAA that a "substantial portion of the allegations" should be withdrawn by the NCAA and that "the evidence in this matter establishes that Gottfried fulfilled his duty to monitor and that the allegations claiming otherwise are unfounded and should be rejected."
Gottfried's lawyers began their argument by pointing out the NCAA had "prejudged" Gottfried and violated the general conceptions of due process. Specifically, they noted that NCAA executives Kevin Lennon and Stan Wilcox made public comments before the investigative phase of the case had been complete.
"The NCAA is using its awesome and untethered power to call (Gottfried) a cheater," Gottfried's lawyers wrote in the response. "And they have done so before the enforcement staff had even completed its investigation. That is not right, and it violates the clear dictates and overarching spirit of the NCAA infractions process."
Gottfried was interviewed by the NCAA enforcement staff on May 8, for nearly three hours, the response notes. Lennon, the NCAA's vice president of governance, made his comment about institutions that "have violated NCAA rules" in May. Wilcox, the NCAA vice president for regulatory affairs, said in June that the NCAA was "moving forward" after the completion of the federal trials in New York and "you'll see consequences."
The Notice of Allegations was issued to N.C. State in early July.
