Today, Ohio State released the following statement regarding the three student athletes who were suspended against Akron. While it was anticipated that they would return, they have yet to be cleared by the NCAA-
The three Ohio State University football players suspended for last week’s game have not been reinstated by the NCAA and will not participate in the game Saturday against the University of Toledo. The university continues to work with the NCAA on the reinstatement process and is hopeful that the student-athletes will be reinstated soon. The university will have no further comment.
This might indicate that there is either a larger issue at hand, or that the NCAA has not gained all of the information that was needed. In fact, the NCAA release included the words “further questions that need to be answered”. Ohio State had assumed that these three would be cleared, and had been preparing all week as such; including conversations with the media.
Thursday night, the Dispatch reported that the suspensions were for receiving $200 at a charity event, and that there were discrepancies in the student athletes’ stories. According to the Dispatch, there seemed to be confusion on whether or not the students believed that they were being paid to work at an event that had been cleared by compliance in previous years.
It’s interesting that student athletes from other programs could be suspended for one game for seemingly greater issues after a relatively quick turnaround by the NCAA, while these students have not yet been given the OK through the process.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
