South Carolina reports 14 NCAA secondary violations

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina has reported 14 NCAA secondary violations from the past six months, including one for an improper text message to a recruit and another for “impermissible snacks.”

Five of the violations were from the first-year program of men’s basketball coach Darrin Horn.

The school’s athletic department released details of the violations this week. It discloses secondary violations twice a year because of open records requests made by The Associated Press and other media outlets.

The NCAA rulebook defines secondary violations as “isolated or inadvertent by nature,” that give only a minimal recruiting or competitive advantage and that don’t involve significant inducements or extra benefits. For instance, South Carolina was cited because “student-athletes were provided impermissible snacks during away-from-home contests.”

South Carolina compliance director Jennifer Stiles says the infraction arose from the NCAA-allowed choice of how to best feed a team in an all-day competions. Discretionary feeding allows coaches to give a per diem so athletes can eat when they want. If a coach chooses the traditional breakfast-lunch-dinner meal plan, inbetween snacking on the school’s dime is unacceptable.

In 2006, South Carolina reported a secondary violation when football coach Steve Spurrier’s wife, Jerri, wrote notes of thanks to families of Gamecock signees.

It’s hard for the public to understand why such seemingly harmless acts are against the rules, Stiles says.

“What I have to keep in perspective is that all of these rules exist not because someone did something kind and innocent for someone but because they were taken to extremes,” she said.

Just one of the five men’s basketball citations rose to Level I, the more serious classification where infractions are reported directly to the NCAA enforcement staff. The school reported on Feb. 13 that a basketball player and a recruit were provided entertainment not allowed under NCAA rules during an official visit.

The other basketball violations were classified as Level II, infractions processed by the Southeastern Conference office and sent to the NCAA after the academic year. Those included a basketball prospect interviewed by the media during an official visit; free tickets not issued according to procedure; impermissible free tickets to South Carolina’s NIT loss to Davidson at the Colonial Life Arena in March; and a prospect was given improper hotel accommodations during an official visit.

The names of any coaches, staff, players or recruits were not included in the infractions report. The school said all eligibility restoration requests involving the infractions were granted.

South Carolina’s football program was cited for three infractions, two of which were deemed more severe.

The school said an assistant coach wrongly text-messaged a prospect and football recruits watched a display that simulated a game-day experience, which is against NCAA rules.

Also, an ineligible player was provided transportation to an away game.

The track program committed two Level I secondary violations. One occurred when coaches attended voluntary athletic related activities, the school said, while the other involved the women’s track coaching staff allowing two prospects an official visit before getting proper approval.

The remaining three infractions involved men’s soccer players given an impermissible nutritional supplement; a men’s swimmer competing before he was certified as eligible; and an athlete practicing past the two-week period allowed before they were added to the team list.

No sport was not indicated in the final violation.

South Carolina also released its drug-testing results from Jan. 1 through June 30. The athletic department said it found seven positives for marijuana use and 12 for approved prescription medications among the 530 tests given. There were no positives for drugs of abuse or alcohol, according to the results.