By Compiled from Times wires
Published August 12, 2003
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Maurice Clarett met with Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger and NCAA officials on Monday, and the running back said he believed he would return to practice this week.
Clarett is being held out of practice with the defending national champion Buckeyes because of investigations by the NCAA and the university.
"I believe I'll be able to start practicing back again this week," Clarett said in an interview with ESPN. "Things seem like they went very well. I'm cooperating with the university, and the NCAA is cooperating with me and I think everyone is happy with things."
Geiger said the three-hour meeting was not a sign that the university was any closer to deciding Clarett's status.
A 10-member university committee is investigating a teaching assistant's claim that Clarett walked out of a midterm exam last fall and later passed the course by taking an oral exam.
He is under investigation by the NCAA for use of a car that was broken into while on overnight loan from a dealership. In a police report, Clarett said he had lost more than $6,000 in clothing, cash and stereo equipment in the theft. He later acknowledged that he had exaggerated his losses.
"The NCAA has questions and they deserve answers, just like with any other program," Clarett said. "It's just part of the program when you sign your scholarship. ... You have to realize that this is part of the program, just being compliant and responding to the questions well."
Geiger said none of the members of the university investigative committee were at the meeting, which was attended by Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown and Clarett's attorney, Scott Schiff.
ALABAMA: The numbers aren't pretty. The Crimson Tide will lose 21 scholarships over three years due to NCAA sanctions and had 75 scholarship players report when fall practice began, 10 fewer than the maximum allowed.
A newspaper survey, however, showed the latter number really isn't much different from the Southeastern Conference schools that aren't on probation.
Only four of 11 SEC schools had 85 scholarship players, according to the Huntsville Times.
Florida had only six more scholarship players than Alabama while Auburn had seven more. Kentucky, stripped of 19 scholarships the day before Alabama received its penalties in February, began fall practice with just 69 players on scholarship.
ARKANSAS: Fullback Mark Pierce returned to campus late Sunday night and was in uniform Monday when the Razorbacks began fall drills. He was given a personal leave of absence on July 15.
MARYLAND: The NCAA handed down one year of probation because an assistant coach committed a "major" violation by giving money to a high school recruit.
The NCAA's infractions committee determined that coach Rod Sharpless gave heralded prospect Victor Abiamiri cash in amounts ranging from $5 to $200 five different times in order to gain an edge in the recruiting competition.
Sharpless "formed a pattern of deliberate violations with a prospect of elite stature that spanned virtually the entire period the assistant coach was permitted to recruit the prospect under NCAA rules," according to a statement released by the NCAA.
The committee found another coach gave a player a T-shirt and hat worth $20, a move the NCAA deemed a "secondary" infraction.
But Maryland escaped serious punishment for the violations, largely because of actions the school took after the allegations arose. It forced Sharpless to resign and stopped recruiting both players involved, steps the NCAA called "commendable."
Baylor issues denial
WACO, Texas - No booster was involved in improper financial aid to basketball players, Baylor president Robert Sloan said.
He would not elaborate on where two athletes got the money, an NCAA violation that lead to the resignations of coach Dave Bliss and athletic director Tom Stanton on Friday.
"Thus far, I have no knowledge of any booster money being involved in improper payments," Sloan said. " ... I know of absolutely no evidence of a slush fund."
Sloan met with players and their families for more than two hours, saying there were "frustration, tears, commitment, all kinds of emotion in the room."
Allegations of NCAA violations surfaced after the disappearance in mid June of player Patrick Dennehy, whose body was found July 25 in a field near a rock quarry southeast of town. Carlton Dotson, who played last season and lived with Dennehy for a few months, has been charged with murder.
LOUISVILLE: Marques Maybin, who played guard from 1997-2001, was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident in his hometown, Clarksville, Tenn., police said.
SOUTH CAROLINA: Center Rolando Howell was arrested and charged with criminal domestic violence, according to Richland County police. The senior was taken into custody around noon Saturday at an apartment complex where he lives with his girlfriend and 2-year-old son, county deputies said.
