NCAA puts Iowa State men’s wrestling on year-long probation for recruiting violations

AMES, Iowa (KCRG) - The NCAA announced Tuesday that it has placed the Iowa State men’s wrestling team on a one-year probation.

It stems from two recruits in the spring of 2025.

Chris Perry, Cyclone Regional Training Center assistant coach, was found to have made impermissible contact two transfer student-athletes.

One of the student athletes had been contacted outside of the transfer portal window.

In addition to the probation, they will face the following negotiated infractions:

• A $25,000 fine, plus 0.5% of the program’s budget
• Recruiting communication ban during the first weeks of the 2026-27 and 2027-28 transfer windows
• Disassociation from Chris Perry for two years
• A two-contest suspension for the former head coach, now program director, Kevin Dresser

The Iowa State Athletics Department shared the following statement:

“During the Spring of 2025, a non-institutional individual contacted two student-athletes at another institution. In both cases, the contact included conversation about Iowa State University wrestling that constituted impermissible recruiting. In one case, the contact occurred three days before the 2025 transfer portal opened. These are violations of NCAA recruiting rules.

“We cooperated fully with the NCAA enforcement staff to thoroughly investigate and resolve the infraction. We accept responsibility and the associated penalties. We will use this incident as a learning opportunity for our wrestling program and as a teaching moment for coaches across all our sports. We take pride in adhering to NCAA rules and thank the NCAA staff for their thorough, fair, and timely resolution of this violation.”