NCAA clears Ohio St. in autograph incident

Players signed autographs while working at a convention.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- The NCAA has reinstated 10 Ohio State football players who were ruled ineligible by the university last week for signing autographs at a health care group's convention in May, The Columbus Dispatch reported today.
The players were allowed to practice but could have missed at least one game.
The university ruled them ineligible on the day it disclosed the violations to the NCAA.
The NCAA reinstated the players after determining that mitigating circumstances contributed to the violations, OSU athletic director Andy Geiger said.
"Everybody is eligible," Geiger told The Dispatch. "We were confident that was how [the NCAA] would rule because they already had given us a verbal indication that would be the case."
In the mix
Geiger confirmed that the group included some prominent players, including starter Chris Gamble, but not tailback Maurice Clarett. He declined to list names.
The players were paid an hourly salary for working at a booth operated by a central Ohio health care company at the Ohio Health Care Association's convention from May 5 to 8 in Columbus.
Part of the work included signing autographs for people at the convention, said Heather Lyke, OSU associate athletic director in charge of compliance.
"The issue is, what work were they getting paid to perform?" Lyke said. "Simply signing autographs is impermissible. You can't get paid based on the value you bring to a company based on your reputation as a student-athlete. Other people in the company weren't there signing autographs."
The players earned different amounts because some worked longer than others. None received more than $200 and some received less than $100, Lyke said.
The NCAA reinstated eligibility in part because the university followed procedure in dealing with the violations, she said. Players issued statements of wrongdoing, were required to forfeit their convention job earnings and no longer can work with the health care company.
Under NCAA rules, the money the players earned goes to the university, which in turn donates it to the charity of the player's choice.
The NCAA also took into account that the players worked for a company that had employed them previously without incident.
Incident surfaces
Ohio State learned of the violation about two weeks ago while reviewing athletes' work records.
"It was something that came up during our normal compliance activities," Geiger said. "It was just a glitch. Our people found it and put together a case and sent it to the NCAA."
He described the violation as an honest mistake.
"I'm not sure they knew what they would be doing once they got there," he said. "It was just an activity that was inappropriate, an honest mistake. It was an autograph deal, and we don't do autographs any more if we can help it."
Lyke said the players would have been held more accountable had the autograph session taken place at a sports card convention rather than a health care expo.
"They were brought to the convention as figureheads and I don't think our student-athletes thought that was going to be the primary reason for their presence," she said.