Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith announced Monday that football players DeVier Posey, Dan Herron and Marcus Hall will be suspended for Saturday’s game at Nebraska as part of the NCAA’s investigation of the program.
The violations involve the wages the players were paid relative to the hours they worked under Robert DiGeronimo, a Cleveland-area booster who has now been disassociated from the university.
Herron was overpaid $292.50. He was paid for 104 hours of work, even though he only worked 84.5 hours. Posey was overpaid by $720, being paid for 70 hours of work, despite actually working only 21.5 hours.
Posey also received $102 in impermissible benefits for a round of golf.
Hall was overpaid by $225. He was paid for 66.5 hours of work, despite only working 51 hours.
Posey and Herron were originally suspended the first five games of the season and were scheduled to be reinstated for Saturday’s game at Nebraska.
Melvin Fellows and Etienne Sabino were also involved, though Fellows is no longer playing due to a career-ending injury and Sabino has already been reinstated.
The reinstatement process is ongoing, Smith said.
In addition to Monday’s announcement, OSU announced on Aug. 12 that it would forfeit $388,811, which was its share of the Big Ten’s payment for playing in the 2011 Sugar Bowl after meeting with the NCAA in Indianapolis.
The money earned from the Sugar Bowl was later donated to charity and the trophy won from the Sugar Bowl is no longer in the trophy case at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
OSU has already administered self-imposed penalties, which include vacating the 2010 season, including its Sugar Bowl victory, and a two-year NCAA probationary term.
Posey, Mike Adams, Herron and Solomon Thomas were originally suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season after selling Buckeye football memorabilia in exchange for improper benefits in the form of tattoos. Linebacker Jordan Whiting received a one-game ban.
The original suspensions were a result of head football coach Jim Tressel failing to report various violations to the compliance department.
A Columbus-area lawyer contacted Tressel via email in April 2010 informing him of memorabilia being sold to a tattoo parlor owner, Eddie Rife. Tressel kept that information to himself and knowingly played athletes later deemed ineligible for the duration of the 2010 season.
Tressel was forced to resign on May 30 and Luke Fickell was named interim head coach for the entire 2011 season. The university later changed the terms of Tressel’s departure from a resignation to a retirement.
Former OSU quarterback Terrelle Pryor had also received a five-game suspension before departing the university on June 7 to pursue a career in the NFL.
Pryor was drafted on Aug. 23 by the Oakland Raiders in the supplemental draft, and after a ruling from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, was suspended for the first five games of the 2011 NFL season.
