Paying random Pro-Kenyans runners hundreds of thousands of dollars is allowed, but texting someone's parent before they enter the transfer portal is "anti-competitive". This is such garbage.
Paying random Pro-Kenyans runners hundreds of thousands of dollars is allowed, but texting someone's parent before they enter the transfer portal is "anti-competitive". This is such garbage.
The craziest part to me is that the NCAA never even had a text or call from Brosnan about transferring to athletes or parents. Reading through this whole case was almost unbearable—it’s hard to believe how everything unfolded.
The report is actually pretty sad. Brosnan was definitely in the wrong here and deserves his punishment but the NCAA does look pretty harsh as well. Timeline is basically:
1. Brosnan becomes friends (as in, has them over for dinner often) with the parents of "Prospect 1" and "Prospect 2" during his time as a HS coach
2. Once Brosnan takes the UCLA job he continues being friends with the parents. Per the NCAA report, this is already a tampering violation, since the bylaws do not differentiate between athletics related and non-athletics-related contact with "individuals associated with an athlete"
3. Prospect 1's mother gets cancer, Prospect 2's dad has a series of strokes; Brosnan continues has conversations with both sets of parents (still a violation)
4. On a few occasions, both sets of parents mention the possibility of transferring; Brosnan tells them he can't talk about it until P1/2 are in the portal (he's wrong, he can't even talk to the parents at all about anything)
5. Transfers happen, coaches get mad, NCAA investigates
6. Brosnan delays meeting with NCAA, claims he wants to review the data they scraped from his phone (I guess the NCAA just hoovers up all of your personal data when you piss them off?) and this is deemed a non-cooperation (I don't really follow this part too well, it's not clear if he was acting on advice from his attorneys or what; the report claims it wasn't related to the phone data)
Items 2-5 are the reason for the tampering violation, item 6 is the reason for non-cooperation.
Again, he was 100% in the wrong in terms of what the rules are but it's pretty brutal to tell a friend "hey because I have this job and because your kid runs in the NCAA, I can't pick up the phone when you call me about your wife having cancer."
This whole situation makes me sick to my stomach. Brosnan talks to a friend about his wife’s cancer and now the NCAA says it’s a violation? That’s complete bs. They claim zero tampering but just wanted to pin a violation on him. I seriously hope Brosnan tears the NCAA apart in a lawsuit and that it costs those greedy assholes a fortune. Reading this just infuriates me beyond belief.
Lol, Brosnan has clearly entered the chat....hi Sean.
Yes.
If anyone ever wanted to ask Brosnan a question, or comment directly to him, just post on this thread. He might answer under any one of several handles that he could be using.
Someone suddenly seems awfully interested in muddying the water, attacking the NCAA, and making it look like Brosnan has a great legal case.
If he does, let him sue and the rest of us will eat popcorn and watch.
do they have a phone recording? Obviously not because who would. But they have phone records of him and the parent calling like 5 times the moments before and after their kids entered the portal. Sure, he was just calling to chit chat with a friend right before their kid enters the portal. Then wanted to follow up 10 minutes later because he forgot to ask about grandma…
He also told compliance that these parents were going through his wife to ask about transferring. He failed to mention he was talking to them all non stop.
He tampered. And the thing is he almost certainly didn’t have to. But he did.
I hope Brosnan stops defending himself on letsrun and moves on
This whole situation makes me sick to my stomach. Brosnan talks to a friend about his wife’s cancer and now the NCAA says it’s a violation? That’s complete bs. They claim zero tampering but just wanted to pin a violation on him. I seriously hope Brosnan tears the NCAA apart in a lawsuit and that it costs those greedy assholes a fortune. Reading this just infuriates me beyond belief.
He calls that person about cancer at 10:25pm and 11:07pm on the same night? And then again the next morning just 13 minutes before the daughter enters the portal? And then 16 minutes later once she's been in the portal for 3 minutes?
It's disgusting that they used a serious illness like cancer as a lie to cover their tracks about obvious recruiting violations. It shows a true lack of character and morals beyond just the violation - they manipulated this family member's cancer diagnosis.
do they have a phone recording? Obviously not because who would. But they have phone records of him and the parent calling like 5 times the moments before and after their kids entered the portal. Sure, he was just calling to chit chat with a friend right before their kid enters the portal. Then wanted to follow up 10 minutes later because he forgot to ask about grandma…
He also told compliance that these parents were going through his wife to ask about transferring. He failed to mention he was talking to them all non stop.
He tampered. And the thing is he almost certainly didn’t have to. But he did.
I hope Brosnan stops defending himself on letsrun and moves on
And he lied about having that conversation to the investigators and he got caught in that lie. He denied saying that to compliance but his compliance office had already told the NCAA about the whole conversation.
Brosnan already hired a lawyer for the case and he LOST. There is no other avenue for him. It's final.
Listen, this case is a nightmare for the NCAA. If anyone actually read the damn thing—though I’m sure the critics didn’t—they’d see there’s zero proof of wrongdoing. The NCAA has the burden of proof and couldn’t find a single text or call about recruiting? I even showed it to my Lawyer wife, who knows antitrust law, and she said Brosnan has a massive case against them. They’re basically telling him who he can hang out with outside work or talk with. The NCAA has nothing—no evidence, no case. This is a total disaster for them. I hope Brosnan pursues this.
“Prospect 1 entered the transfer portal on December 12, 2022, and prospect 2 entered on January 2, 2023. Two of Brosnan’s 11 phone calls with prospect 1’s father occurred at 10:25 p.m. and 11:07 p.m. on December 11, 2022, the night before prospect 1 entered the portal. Prospect 1’s father initiated both calls. Brosnan then initiated a phone call to prospect 1’s father the following day. The call concluded 13 minutes before prospect 1 entered the portal. Prospect 1’s father then called Brosnan three minutes after prospect 1 entered the portal."
NCAA basically allowing shady agents in Kenya to monetize runners. That’s the controversy.
that's certainly an issue that s/b addressed but it has nothing to do with this guy who got caught tampering.
But this report shows he didn’t tamper. The NCAA just say he can have any friends with people who’s kids run at a NCAA school. There was no proof of tampering. This is a bazar case
do they have a phone recording? Obviously not because who would. But they have phone records of him and the parent calling like 5 times the moments before and after their kids entered the portal. Sure, he was just calling to chit chat with a friend right before their kid enters the portal. Then wanted to follow up 10 minutes later because he forgot to ask about grandma…
He also told compliance that these parents were going through his wife to ask about transferring. He failed to mention he was talking to them all non stop.
He tampered. And the thing is he almost certainly didn’t have to. But he did.
I hope Brosnan stops defending himself on letsrun and moves on
And he lied about having that conversation to the investigators and he got caught in that lie. He denied saying that to compliance but his compliance office had already told the NCAA about the whole conversation.
Brosnan already hired a lawyer for the case and he LOST. There is no other avenue for him. It's final.
Listen, this wasn’t decided in court. Brosnan still has every damn right to appeal this with the NCAA. If he actually sues them, he’ll crush it without a shadow of a doubt. The NCAA has zero proof of any wrongdoing. They’re basically just pissed off that Brosnan has old friends working with his parents—people he’s known for years. It’s an excuse and they’re grasping at straws because they don’t like the situation.
And he lied about having that conversation to the investigators and he got caught in that lie. He denied saying that to compliance but his compliance office had already told the NCAA about the whole conversation.
Brosnan already hired a lawyer for the case and he LOST. There is no other avenue for him. It's final.
Listen, this wasn’t decided in court. Brosnan still has every damn right to appeal this with the NCAA. If he actually sues them, he’ll crush it without a shadow of a doubt. The NCAA has zero proof of any wrongdoing. They’re basically just pissed off that Brosnan has old friends working with his parents—people he’s known for years. It’s an excuse and they’re grasping at straws because they don’t like the situation.
I'll repeat:
Let him sue and we'll eat popcorn and watch.
To the level that this can be adjudicated, it already has been. All the claims on LetsRun that he has a strong case (or any case at all) aren't worth spit.
I think an apology is owed to the Duke and UVA coaches who were slandered for reporting it, when they were actually 100% correct. The NCAA found proof.
I agree but the problem is tampering is rampant in this day and age in the NCAA. I love those 2 schools for speaking up and they are owed apologies by many in the running/coaching community.
It's that he used those friendships to tamper with athletes at other schools.
It's why he had multiple phone calls right before and after an athlete entered the transfer portal, marked not to be contacted by others, and committed without talking to anyone else.
It's why he told compliance that those parents had contacted his wife about their kids transferring.
Brosnan got caught. He tried to collude with the parents, resist giving over his phone records, not talk to parents, blame it on Cancer, and more. Because he got caught.
And he was dumb enough to tell other recruits before they'd even signed. And he was dumb enough to do it to one of the most powerful men in college track, Vin.
This isn't an insane violation. But it's a stupid move. And it makes me think that all those allegations against him in high school were almost certainly true as well.