Ohio State self-reports 6 minor violations, including Braxton Miller Instagram post

Ohio State athletics self-reported 29 violations to the NCAA from the period of Feb. 1 to Sept. 10 and six of the violations involved the football program.

According to The Lantern, which obtained the list of violations via a public-records request, one of the reported violations was Braxton Miller’s Instagram post from March that promoted AdvoCare, a nutritional supplement.

Once it became aware of the post, OSU’s compliance department asked Miller (who was not named in the list of violations) to remove the post, which he did a few hours later. Miller was initially declared ineligible, but was reinstated without any conditions by the NCAA a few weeks later.

“In response to the violation, the Compliance Office met with the student-athlete, the football coaches, and staff to provide additional education related to the incident,” OSU’s report read. “Further, the student-athlete was immediately declared ineligible until reinstated by the NCAA.”

Another noteworthy self-reported violation appears to involve quarterback Cardale Jones. The violation details a football player’s attendance of Cleveland Browns cornerback Joe Haden’s celebrity softball game, which Jones attended.

 

Here’s what the violation says:

On June 6, 2015, a football student‐athlete attended the Joe Haden Celebrity Charity Softball Game in Cleveland, Ohio. Prior to attending the celebrity game, the student‐athlete was told by the Compliance Office and football staff that he was neither permitted to attend nor play in the game. The student‐athlete told the Compliance Office and football staff that he would not attend the game. However, on the morning of the event, the student‐athlete called his position coach and asked if he could attend the celebrity game. The coach gave the student‐athlete permission to attend the game provided that he did not play. As such, the student‐athlete attended the celebrity game, appeared on the field, but did not play in the game. Because the institution did not provide written approval for the student‐athlete to appear at the Joe Haden Celebrity Charity Softball Game, a violation occurred.

The violation had no bearing on Jones’ eligibility, but the compliance staff sent the team a “letter of education” to emphasize “rules regarding promotional activities" after it occurred.

The other four football violations included: a walk-on who was ineligible to travel with the team to the Sugar Bowl, an impermissible phone call from head coach Urban Meyer to a recruit, special teams coach Kerry Coombs posting a photo of high school coaches in front of the national championship trophy on his Twitter account and a current football player tweeting about a class of 2016 recruit.

Thanks to The Lantern, you can view all 29 violations here.