There are two sides to every story.

That’s what Arizona State fans must be repeating to themselves after reports this week that the NCAA was investigating whether the Sun Devils committed recruiting violations that include hosting high school athletes during the COVID-19 dead period.

Because, if true, the details contained in stories by The Athletic and Yahoo! Sports should get football coach Herm Edwards, his staff and some people above them in the chain of command fired.

ASU folks aren’t talking beyond a university spokesperson confirming the NCAA “is conducting an investigation regarding allegations related to our football program.”

The allegations are serious. According to anonymous sources in the reports, a person sent a file to ASU’s athletic department containing dozens of pages that included screenshots, receipts, pictures and emails allegedly related to numerous violations within the football program.

For now, the main allegation seems to be that ASU illegally hosted high school athletes during a dead period that lasted 15 months and ended June 1. Schools weren’t allowed to host recruits in that time, but that didn’t stop the Sun Devils from doing so, according to allegations in both stories.

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The Athletic reported ASU hid recruits in a suite during a game last fall, according to a source, and brought a recruit through the backstairs of the football offices to meet Edwards.

Yahoo! reported at least 30 athletes visited ASU during the dead period and coaches routinely “bumped into” recruits in the back stairwell. Many tours happened at night, according to the story.

If true, this appears to be the busiest backstair well in college athletics.

So many kids were visiting, per Yahoo!, that a staff member parked a 12-person van in the staff parking lot to ferry recruits.

Yahoo! even got Stanford coach David Shaw and Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick to talk on the record for the story. And nobody ever talks on the record in those kinds of stories.

If true, the violations indicate a football program that is dumb, arrogant, corrupt and out of control.

It would mean that Edwards, who preaches accountability, trust and respect, is a fraud.

It would mean that Athletic Director Ray Anderson made a colossal mistake when he hired Edwards, his good friend.

And it would mean that ASU President Michael Crow should take a long look at the wisdom of Anderson’s continued employment.

This story, if true, is filled with ignorance and irony. ASU played only four games last year because of COVID-19 outbreaks. Few football programs were impacted more.

Several members of the coaching staff, including Edwards, tested positive. The Sun Devils declined to play in a bowl at the end of the season because they were exhausted by the demands of trying to play a season during pandemic. Or, maybe it was just all those late nights illegally hosting recruits.

Yet, ASU allegedly used the pandemic to gain a recruiting advantage?

When Edwards came to ASU, the goal was to structure the program like an NFL team. Edwards would serve as a CEO-type who would be a father figure for college kids and mentor young coaches.

Antonio Pierce is one of those coaches, and he’s gradually gained more power within the program over the last three years. He’s now its recruiting coordinator, defensive coordinator and associate head coach. Edwards has leaned on Pierce heavily, partly because of his recruiting connections in Southern California.

And in the last year, ASU has broadened its recruiting borders to basically the entire United States.

Pierce has been mentioned as the possible successor to Edwards, which always seemed premature to me, given that ASU has yet to accomplish much under the current regime.

The Sun Devils are 17-13 under Edwards, although they are expected to contend for the Pac-12 South this season, and recruiting has improved steadily over the last three years, per experts who follow that industry.

But has ASU done it the right way?

All coaches push the rules to the limits and test the patience of those in compliance offices. But these allegations go way beyond that. If true, it means that Edwards and some of his staff scoffed at rules put in place during the worst pandemic in a century.

If true, ASU’s marketing slogan of “No. 1 in innovation” becomes a punchline.

If Edwards and others in the program are guilty of those allegations, they didn’t innovate, they deceived.

All the above is just one side of the story. Edwards and others connected to the football program are giving their side to officials from ASU and the NCAA who are looking into it.

ASU fans have to hope it’s a good one, because the only dark clouds in the Valley right now are hovering over the football offices at the north end of Sun Devil Stadium.

Reach Somers at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @kentsomers. Hear Somers every Friday at 7:30 a.m.on The Drive with Jody Oehler on Fox Sports 910 AM.