Ohio State admits dozens of NCAA secondary violations

Ohio State's Urban Meyer, AD Gene Smith admit 'secondary' NCAA violations; school reports 46 violations in all sports since last June 

Published on www.cleveland.com | shared via feedly

None of the violations, among the 46 reported in 21 sports since May 30 of last year, are a big deal on their own, nothing close to the major violations that threw the football program into turmoil during 2011. The violations were released to The Plain Dealer on Thursday in response to a records request filed to Ohio State on April 18 for all NCAA violations committed by the school's athletic department dating back to May 30, 2011. That was the date on which former football coach Jim Tressel was forced to resign.

Many are related to assistant coaches in various sports mistakenly contacting recruits they believe are older than they really are, almost laughably insignificant missteps.

But on one hand, anything having to do with violations won't help Ohio State's perception, while on the other hand, a lot of secondary violations can be viewed as a sign of a strong compliance department. 

Original story found here.

This revelation should come as no shock to Florida Gator fans. From at least 2008 forward, there wasn't a year that passed in which Meyer or his staff copped to secondary violations in recruiting. During the recent 2012 recruiting season, several Big 10 coaches whined loudly about Meyer's recruiting tactics.

The NCAA rulebook is hopelessly complex. No program is immune to occasional missteps and unintentional violations of the arcane manual.

The question is: When does a series of secondary violations become evidence of such a pattern of misconduct that it rises to the level of a major infraction? In the recent Tennessee case involving former coach Lane Kiffin's voluminous "secondary" transgressions, NCAA enforcement staff argued before the Committee on Infractions that the violations were so frequent that they constituted failure to monitor.

The COI found that argument unconvincing and did not sanction Kiffin or the school for that offense, but don't think that Enforcement walked away undaunted. 

The last thing Ohio State wants to see now is Enforcement trying another bite at the apple, this time against a program barely a year into the dreaded "repeat violator" window.