Penalties revealed from NCAA recruiting violations involving former Gamecock staffer
Months after South Carolina football’s director of player personnel Taylor Edwards resigned from the fallout of an NCAA rules violation, the school has revealed its punishment in the case.
South Carolina self-reported the Level III NCAA violation on Sept. 17 — the least serious violation — according to documents obtained by The State through a Freedom of Information Act request, saying that “a football staff member communicated with a four-year college prospective student-athlete prior to obtaining authorization through the written notification of transfer process.”
The case was considered resolved as of Oct. 10, according to the documents.
As a result, the SEC penalized South Carolina by making USC decrease its number of recruiting days by four during the spring 2025 spring recruiting period.
The NCAA also issued its own action against South Carolina, saying the football program “is precluded from calling or sending written or electronic correspondence to any prospective student-athlete for a one week period.” The documents do not specify when that one week period will be enforced.
Days before South Carolina reported the Edwards-related violations, The State published a story including emails from a human resources employee at South Carolina writing that Edwards “committed serious violations of NCAA legislation.”
In his role as director of player personnel, Edwards oversaw the Gamecocks’ entire recruiting department and was the liaison between the football program and South Carolina’s NIL collective, The Garnet Trust.
According to emails, Edwards learned his actions were “sufficient to justify the termination” on July 23. By July 3, he was no longer with the program. What’s interesting is Edwards had been rewarded just months earlier. In January 2024, South Carolina gave Edwards a contract extension and a raise, bumping his salary to $300,000.
The documents obtained by The State also show that South Carolina submitted two other Level III violations this spring, months before Edwards’ departure.
The first, from March, was because a football student worker served as a student host during a recruit’s official visit. The rules dictate the host must be a current student-athlete, and the only institutional action in response was “rules education.”
The second, from April, was due to a coaching staffer sending a digital graphic to several recruits that indicated they had a written offer prior to the first day a school could send out written offers.
That resulted in an institutional punishment stating that the South Carolina coaching staff could not communicate with the involved prospects for a two-week span last summer.
This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 12:10 PM.
