![\"Steven](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/KJ4YHHF3LFAY5LDZREQPC2MLUA.png\"\/)
Former Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl, and his wife Brandy watch new Auburn head coach Steven Pearl address the media at his introductory press conference on Sept. 24, 2025WES SINOR<\/p>\nFormer Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl, and his wife Brandy watch new Auburn head coach Steven Pearl address the media at his introductory press conference on Sept. 24, 2025WES SINOR<\/p>\n
Fran Fraschilla has been involved with college basketball for nearly 50 years and he\u2019s never seen anything like the past couple of weeks.<\/p>\n
The 2025-26 season doesn\u2019t begin until Nov. 3, but the sport has recently been overtaken by chaotic headlines – including one coach being placed on administrative leave after his assistant was linked to \u201chuman trafficking, pimping, and pandering\u201d and another suspended for alleged abuse of his players.<\/p>\n
Nearly half a dozen head coaches have either retired, been fired or suspended in about the last two weeks. And while there is no common link among the cases, it amounts to a series of controversial headlines for the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo fan will feel sorry for the college coaching profession,\u201d Fraschilla told NJ Advance Media. \u201cThis is the business they have chosen. But this is the most insanity I\u2019ve ever seen. I blame athletic administrators who never fully got their arms around the transfer portal and NIL. Chaos has ensued.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated did a nice job summarizing the chaos in a social media post.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a breakdown of the recent head coaching headlines:<\/p>\n
**On Sept. 10, St.Joe\u2019s coach Billy Lange stepped down<\/a> to join Mike Brown\u2019s staff with the Knicks<\/a>. Lange was replaced by Steve Donahue, who owns a career coaching record of 331\u2013344.<\/p>\n **On Sept. 12, Wofford fired coach Dwight Perry over housing and meal plan eligibility violations<\/a> involving players that totaled between $84 and $108 per player for six players.<\/p>\n **On Sept. 22, Auburn\u2019s Bruce Pearl<\/a> announced he was stepping down ahead of the season after leading the program to two Final Fours, including last season. The move was timed so that his son, Steven Pearl – who has never been a head coach at any level – could take over without a coaching search.<\/p>\n **On Sept. 24, Wagner suspended head coach Donald Copeland, a former Seton Hall<\/a> standout, for alleged abuse of his players, including making the players do extra running after he found a hidden water bottle in the gym. The news was first reported by the NY Post.<\/a><\/p>\n The school issued a statement on Wednesday.<\/p>\n **Also on Sept. 24, Cal State Bakersfield\u2019s Rod Barnes stepped down after his assistant Kevin Mays was charged with several felonies<\/a>, including child pornography, and pimping and pandering, after being accused of trafficking a woman. Assistant coach Mike Scott was named the acting head coach.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl, and his wife Brandy watch new Auburn head coach Steven Pearl address…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":254052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-254051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115265990110186301","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}