The stunning return of Will Wade to LSU is at the same time a full-circle moment and a sign of how much college athletics has changed in a short time. 

In March of 2022, LSU fired Wade for cause amid one of college basketball’s most high-profile NCAA cases. Now, after stops at McNeese (two years) and NC State (one), the 43-year-old firebrand is returning to Baton Rouge with no formal barriers in place and gobs of NIL money to — legally — make some strong-ass offers. It is the first time a Division I men’s college basketball program has rehired a head coach it had previously fired since 2007 (a South Alabama-Ronnie Arrow reunion). 

The obvious question is how that happened.

Wade’s exit from LSU traces back to the federal investigation into corruption in college basketball recruiting. In 2019, reports surfaced that he had been caught on an FBI wiretap speaking with Christian Dawkins, a former agent and middleman who was indicted and later served jail time for his role in the college basketball corruption scandal, about what he described as a “strong-ass offer” to a recruit. The comments were widely interpreted as a reference to an impermissible payment.

LSU suspended Wade just before the end of the regular season, then reinstated him weeks later after he met with school and NCAA officials and denied wrongdoing. The case, however, continued to build.

NCAA enforcement documents later alleged Wade arranged or offered payments to multiple recruits or people around them. In March 2022, LSU fired him after receiving a Notice of Allegations that included multiple Level I violations — the NCAA’s most serious category.

The case was resolved in 2023, when an independent panel issued Wade a two-year show-cause order and a 10-game suspension. The ruling went beyond the wiretap, concluding he had engaged in impermissible payments, failed to cooperate fully with investigators and did not promote compliance within the program.

Why there’s no roadblock now

Even with those findings, the penalties were essentially time-limited. A show-cause order does not ban a coach from working. It requires any school that hires him to accept NCAA-imposed restrictions. McNeese did that, suspending Wade to begin his tenure there.

By the time LSU pursued him this time around, the show-cause period had run its course. There’s no waiver needed, no extra step. From the NCAA’s standpoint, the matter is closed.

The harder question is how Wade’s actions fit in today’s landscape.

Since 2021, name, image and likeness (NIL) rights have reshaped the sport. Players can now receive money through endorsement deals and collectives tied to programs. What used to be strictly prohibited is now, in many cases, just part of the system.

But Wade’s case wasn’t simply about money reaching players. It involved how it was handled — off the books, through intermediaries and without disclosure — along with issues tied to cooperation in the investigation.

Those factors still matter. What’s changed is everything around them.

Enforcement has slowed, the lines around inducements are less clearly defined and schools are operating more aggressively when it comes to roster building. The gap between what once drew major penalties and what’s tolerated today has narrowed.

There’s also a more straightforward reason LSU made the move: results.

Wade led the Tigers to three NCAA Tournament appearances in five seasons. Since his departure, the program has struggled to regain that footing. Under Matt McMahon, LSU went 60-70 (.462) in four seasons without reaching the tournament.

Wade, meanwhile, kept winning. He went 50-9 in two seasons at McNeese with two NCAA Tournament trips, then turned that into the NC State job. Even after one year there, he remained a coach with a track record of quick turnarounds.

If there were previously any hard feelings between Wade and LSU, the school now has a new president — Wade Rousse, who previously hired Wade at McNeese — and a new athletics director, Verge Ausberry. It preceded the hire of Wade with that of Heath Schroyer, who had been the AD at McNeese, where he worked with Wade, and will be a Senior Administrator at LSU. There’s a new order of power in Baton Rouge, and a new way of doing business in college sports. Wade will not be asked to change to deliver the expected results.