AMES — Five former or current Iowa State football coaching staff members were disciplined by the NCAA for violating its sports gambling rules.
The five staff members were found to have placed over 6,200 bets on professional and college games, including Iowa State men’s and women’s basketball games. The group collected over $100,000 in winnings throughout their endeavors.
Jace Heacock, Chase Clark, Michael Dryer, Kyle Highland and Mason Williams were the five staff members accused of sports gambling and pleaded guilty to their activities.
Heacock, the son of defensive coordinator Jon Heacock, was found to have placed 787 bets totaling about $55,359 during his time as a football graduate assistant in 2021 and 2022. He was also just rehired on April 24 by Iowa State to become the director of football analytics after being away from the program for a couple of years.
Clark placed 2,305 bets totaling about $18,676 during his time as the former assistant director of football equipment operations. He is now an assistant equipment manager for the Detroit Lions.
Dryer placed 1,182 bets totaling about $11,536 during his time as the former assistant of equipment operations. He now works in sales for a sporting goods company.
Highland placed 509 bets totaling about $6,365 during his time as the former football recruiting operations assistant. He is now with Army football as its assistant director of football operations.
Williams placed 1,455 bets totaling about $11,679 during his time as the former associate for athletics equipment operations. He is now the head equipment manager at Valparaiso.
While the group faces no criminal charges, the NCAA still placed a one-year show-cause order on each violator that runs through April 24, 2026.
This order means that if any of the five members were to be hired by another college athletic department during this time period, they would be required to attend an annual NCAA Regional Rules Seminar and serve a two-week suspension.
The NCAA also classified these findings as Level II violations, which could compromise the integrity of the NCAA collegiate model.
These findings were already part of a statewide investigation into sports gambling in college athletic facilities, which found multiple student athletes at both Iowa and Iowa State to be guilty of underage betting during this time period.
The Iowa State athletic department declined to comment on the matter.
