Sooners report secondary NCAA violations
NORMAN — In the hours before Arjei Henderson’s official visit to Oklahoma, Henderson came to Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium to record a commitment video that was eventually posted by TheFootballBrainiacs. com.
The video led the Sooners to report an NCAA violation, a routine check of such reports by The Oklahoman revealed.
According to paperwork filed with the NCAA, school officials were unaware of the filming of the video.
It was discovered after the video was posted by Henderson to social media.
Henderson’s arrival on campus for the video started the 48-hour clock for his official visit, causing Henderson to be at OU for more than 48 hours.
At the time of the video, the field was closed to the public.
The school provided rules education to the website.
Henderson is a fourstar wide receiver commit from the 2019 class.
Most of the violations were minor, with the main corrective action being additional education for those involved.
The mostly selfreported violations covered by the request ranged from a men’s track athlete competing before he was eligible to football recruits being walked through a tunnel lined with LED lights, “simulating a game-day experience” to softball coach Patty Gasso replying to a “Merry Christmas” text message from a prospective studentathlete (PSA) with “Same to you.” Gasso didn’t know who the text was from.
The track athlete, who was ruled ineligible due to his grade-point average, competed in an indoor meet before being certified as eligible by the Athletics Compliance Department despite his grade in an intersession class raising his GPA above the required 1.8.
Here are some other items of interest uncovered by the request:
•Lincoln Riley sent a text message to a PSA during a week in which the school was serving an electronic correspondence penalty
•Riley visited Waco Midway High School during the spring evaluation period before he took over as head coach. The coach, unknown to Riley, called Tanner Mordecai into his office. Riley shook Mordecai’s hand but informed him NCAA rules prohibited them speaking to each other. Mordecai remained present while Riley and the coach conversed briefly.
•Football player Ryan Jones participated in a practice prior to his parents filling out all required paperwork. Jones was under 18 at the time.
•Three football PSAs took photos with former coach Barry Switzer, who is considered a booster, during the 2017 season.
•Switzer received four all-access passes and provided those to his son-in-law, who gave them to his son (Switzer’s grandson) and three of his son’s prospect-aged friends. While Switzer’s grandson is not prospect aged, his granddaughter is a recruited studentathlete in tennis and now is on the OU tennis team.
•Former director of football operations Matt McMillen provided two sideline credentials to Bob Stoops’ son, who was joined by a prospect-aged friend.
•Former football player Jaxon Uhles used his name and image — but not his status as a football player — to promote an unrelated business on social media.
•When Ruffin McNeill was visiting a high school in North Carolina, an assistant coach who McNeill had known for 25 years, called his son, a prospective student-athlete, into the office and asked McNeill to take a picture with him. McNeill believed this was allowed based on the relationship with the recruit’s father.
•A prospective student-athlete on an unofficial visit for football during the 2017 spring game took a picture with an unnamed former OU football player who plays in the NFL. Such contact was made allowable as of August 1, 2017.
•A prospective student-athlete on an unofficial visit to a football game and two guests were in a premium seating area and were in line for food. All three left before eating.