Gene Smith's Latest Comments On 12 Secondary Violations

Ohio State has released information regarding 12 secondary NCAA issues being processed by the athletic department’s compliance office. The release contained information that contradicted previous statements from the athletic department, and some OSU students don’t hold athletic director Gene Smith responsible for the pending violations either.

"Smith said there were 12 pending secondary violations during a Tuesday interview with The Lantern. OSU spokesman Dan Wallenberg later said in a Wednesday email that the actual number of violations was less than 12.

Wallenberg did confirm that the additional violations are being “processed,” although he said he did not “know the status of each situation” in regards to whether it was being processed by the university or the NCAA."

You would think after all that has happened, that Smith would be a little bit smarter in how he presented these types of situations.

"Smith told The Lantern Tuesday the athletic department has 12 pending NCAA violations.

“We’ve got 12 pending,” Smith said. “It may turn out to be secondary. It may not.”

Smith clarified in a Thursday morning phone call that the potential violations would either be secondary or nothing at all."

Now with all that, Gene Smith has tried to back track on what he has said following the amount of criticism coming from all directions of any Ohio State-related website, paper or blog.

"Contrary to reports attributed to me, Ohio State Athletics is not facing any major NCAA violations," Smith said. "There are several secondary violations being processed by our compliance office. These are similar to those released last week. Again, these are secondary in nature and consistent with our culture of self-reporting even the most minor and inadvertent violations.

"Again, to be clear, the Ohio State football program, its coaches and staff are not facing any [major] violations."

Big ups to Eleven Warriors for catching a statement that you might have missed.

Tuesday's Buckeye Bits

Surprise, Buckeye fans! You've got me again today. We've got a good round of Bits coming your way this morning but I first just wanted you all to take notice of a new house on the market that looks pretty damn nice. If you want to buy me a present for all of my hard work, I would gladly take our coach's former house. Anyways, back on to the task at hand. Let's get on with today's Buckeye Bits!

You Thought That Was The Only House Today? Ramzy over at Eleven Warriors continues to dominate the writing game, this time with a piece on a different view of Ohio State and Michigan. Also, he continues the house-theme today, with Tom Brady's super mansion. Also, if you haven't seen the fight of the century, it's way better than anything Pacquiao and Mayweather could do.

"The reason that Michigan has been isolated instead of, say, Northwestern (most Wildcats, like Buckeyes, are Communications majors) is because with Rich Rodriguez no longer in Ann Arbor, Michigan is back to recruiting the same players as Ohio State once again. There simply is no offseason in college football's greatest rivalry.

The likely reverberation will be Michigan coaches having to explain, again, why so many of its players end up as General Studies majors. It's an extremely answerable question that passes the red-face test without any challenges. That's not really the intent, though. This is a simple, short-attention span rebuttal to Michigan's value proposition."

To echo Ramzy, this rivalry really doesn't have an offseason. Let the hate flow.

Friday's Buckeye Bits

Good Friday morning, everybody! It's been a heck of a first week with Buckeye Bits, and the first week of the off-season comes to a close today as well. Football may be over, but there is still plenty of Ohio State sports to watch.

Sunday, the men's basketball team tips at 4:30 against the Hoosiers at the corner of Lane and Olentangy. Vengeance shall be the word of the day, as the Buckeyes lost in Bloomington, as well as earlier this week in Champaign. Of course, last night the Hoosiers were shocked by Minnesota, 77-74. If you aren't going to the game, watch it on CBS.

If you like your Buckeye sports a bit colder and bloodier, the Puckeyes will face off against Michigan at 7:30 Friday at the Schott, and again Sunday at 5:05. The Sunday matchup is in Cleveland, in the Frozen Diamond Faceoff in the Indians' Progressive Field. Friday's game will be shown on the Big Ten Network, and the big game Sunday will be on Fox Sports Ohio. Jeff Svoboda has an excellent writeup on Buckeye Sports Bulletin. No word if Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn will be in attendance.

A Box Of Tissues For The NCAA

Screw the NCAA. Ha.

Ed. Note: Understanding the whole NCAA situation is no small task. Here's ProveIt with what we hope is his first of many guest posts here at ITS. Leave your thoughts and comments down below!

The laughable effect of the NCAA’s sanctions isn’t likely to give anyone pause. 3 scholarships a year for 3 years and a 1 year post season ban resulted in responses ranging from “…and what else? Over 1 year of investigation this is all?” to the ever popular sentiments “Bite me!”and “FFFFUUUU!”

What is less laughable is the rationale in the COI report (Committee of Infractions) though Tressel and the gear for tattoos there wasn’t anything new other than sanctions against Tressel.

The rest of the report starts with a false finding, and goes downhill from there…