It’s been nearly a week since reports surfaced that Ohio State was looking into a potential NCAA violation committed by Braxton Miller.
Since then, OSU has been mum on the issue -- until now. Sort of.
According to a tweet from Todd Porter of the Canton Repository, head coach Urban Meyer was asked about the potential for NCAA issues when it comes to the quarterback’s situation. At least publicly, Meyer has taken the Lt. Drebin tack and stated, essentially, move on, there’s nothing to see here.
Urban Meyer answers @CantonRepdotcom ? About Braxton Miller NCAA endorsement issue "everything is fine. No issue."
— toddporter (@toddporter) March 30, 2015
Whether Meyer is correct in his assessment remains to be seen.
As for the issue at hand, a school spokesperson last Wednesday confirmed to The Lantern, OSU’s student newspaper, that the university is looking into a potential NCAA rules violation committed by Miller. ElevenWarriors.com wrote at the time that “Miller… had a bit of a lapse in judgement [Tuesday] night when he appeared to endorse Advocare, a weight-loss and nutrition multi-level marketing firm that some people consider a pyramid scheme.”
The apparent endorsement came in the form of a post made to Instagram, which was subsequently taken down when the mini-controversy began to grow.
Student-athletes are permitted to hold jobs and even be self-employed, which appears to be the case in Miller’s association with the Amway-like AdvoCare group. However, as Texas A&M compliance director Brad Barnes explained to SBNation‘s Steven Godfrey in an excellent Q&A on the issue, a player’s earnings “may not include any remuneration for value or utility that the student-athlete may have for the employer because of the publicity, reputation, fame or personal following that he or she has obtained because of athletics ability.”
That will be the decision that OSU, and potentially the NCAA, has to make: whether Miller’s Instagram post constitutes using his “reputation, fame or personal following” for financial gain (whether it should be that way is another matter entirely).
Meyer doesn’t seemed concerned at all over the issue, although until the school officially reaches a decision and issues a public statement, it’s a situation that bears watching.