Ohio St. AD: Pending violations minor

Published May. 24, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith issued a statement Thursday, clarifying that the university was not facing any major NCAA violations, following comments he made to the school's student newspaper.

Smith said in an interview with The Lantern published Wednesday that the department has 12 violations pending with the NCAA on top of the 46 self-reported secondary violations released last week.

He was quoted as saying the pending violations "may turn out to be secondary. It may not," suggesting some could be deemed primary.

But Smith later confirmed, "Contrary to reports attributed to me, Ohio State Athletics is not facing any major NCAA violations."

The Latern's Wednesday report quoted Ohio State spokesman Dan Wallenberg as saying the number of pending violations was actually fewer than the 12 cited by Smith.

Smith's statement Thursday failed to mention an exact figure, instead saying, "There are several secondary violations being processed by our compliance office. Those are similar to those released last week."

The 46 secondary violations released last week, which involved 21 of the 36 varsity sports, dated back to May 30, 2011, when former Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel resigned following a string of high-profile violations under his watch.