Currently, there are 12 secondary NCAA issues being processed by the athletics compliance office regarding Ohio State. By secondary, it means these are not major violations. All are consistent with the department’s culture of self-report. Four of them are related to the football team, none to men’s basketball.
OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith sent out a statement with regard to information reported by the student newspaper The Lantern last night. He reiterated that no Ohio State athletics program is facing any major NCAA issues. Here are the four incidents that could lead to future secondary violations
– A former assistant football coach had an inadvertent contact or “bump” with a potential recruit
– The program understood the aunt of a potential recruit was his legal guardian and provided food and lodging expenses to her for the official visit.
– The compliance office approved the use of mini basketballs during a football winter conditioning workout.
– An assistant coach inadvertently posted on the Facebook wall of a 2013 potential recruit, believing at the time he was using the email inbox function of Facebook.
And here’s comment from the Big Ten Conference Associate Commissioner, Compliance, Chad Hawley to Ohio State’s compliance office:
“We are not concerned about the quantity of violations. Division I athletics is a highly regulated environment with a self-reporting requirement. When it is clear that a violation has occurred, we expect our institutions to report the violation. Ohio State has a well-established practice of operating in this way.”
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