mind your p's and q's

The Cleveland Plain Dealer notes that OSU self-reported 46 NCAA violations in the past year, including some secondary violations in football.  Some strike me as very petty - one is because an assistant coach was chewing tobacco during a game, and another because Urban Meyer may have said "good luck" in passing to a recruit in a state title game in PA.  Those strike me as foot faults, and are not really a big deal in my book.  You'd think OSU would be extremely careful these days, but it's hard for me to get worked up about such violations.

The more serious one, in my mind, is apparently Gene Smith and Archie Griffin got together to prepare a "personalized" recruiting video for Ezekiel Elliott for his official visit to OSU in March.  That's not only a clear violation of NCAA rules, it's not something that happens accidentally or "in passing".  You have to contact your former Heisman Trophy winner, put together a script, get someone to film it for you, and get it over to the recruit.  Lots of chances there to realize "hey, maybe we shouldn't be doing this!". And it's the freakin' AD doing it, with some experience with NCAA violations.  This is not on the scale of booster payments, Toys for Tatts™, loaner cars for athletes, etc.  But really dumb all the same.  Gene Smith is the gift that keeps on giving.  He should definitely hold onto those incriminating pictures he (must) have of the NCAA administration!

The link to the article is below, together with a summary copied (with some bits redacted for space considerations - it's worth a stroll over to the CPD article to see the whole list) from the CPD article.

http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2012/05/ohio_states_urban_meyer_ad_gen.html

•Football coach Urban Meyer said "Good luck," to recruit Noah Spence before his state championship game in Pennsylvania in December. Contact like that with Spence, on his game day, is forbidden. •Athletic director Gene Smith and alumni association CEO Archie Griffin recorded a personalized video for football recruit Ezekiel Elliott for his official campus visit on March 31. Recruiting videos are forbidden. •Greg Paulus, the basketball team's video coordinator, was reported to be coaching players during the Buckeyes' Big Ten Tournament semifinal win over Michigan on March 10. Video coordinators, who aren't full assistants, may not coach players. The violation was discovered after a general conversation between an OSU player's parent and an assistant athletic director. •In December of 2010, five current football players took five recruits on OSU visits to a movie. NCAA rules allow each recruit $60 in spending money for entertainment. A cab ride to the movie put each recruit between $1 and $5 over budget, which the football players paid out of pocket. That was not allowed because the $60 limit was exceeded.. -- Doug Lesmerises