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Ohio State basketball reportedly hit with recruiting violations

Ohio State v Gonzaga

BOISE, ID - MARCH 17: Head coach Chris Holtmann of the Ohio State Buckeyes reacts during the first half against the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the second round of the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Taco Bell Arena on March 17, 2018 in Boise, Idaho. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

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The Ohio State men’s basketball program has been hit with some of the stupidest recruiting violations I’ve ever heard of.

Three basketball recruits and one football recruit were on campus on September 9th and, during the visit, took a trip to the set of ESPN Gameday, which was in town for the Ohio State-Oklahoma football game, a source confirmed to NBC Sports.

During that trip to set, the recruits all met former Ohio State players Kirk Herbstreit, who works for ESPN, and Eddie George, who was a guest picker that day, as well as two other ESPN personalities. Recruits are allowed to meet former players on their visit to campus. They aren’t, however, allowed to meet with the media, and since ESPN’s Gameday staff is considered to be media, Ohio State technically committed a recruiting violation.

Now this is where things get a little bit messy.

According to a story from the Lantern, the football staff self-reported the violation, ended their recruitment of the football player involved and suspended the staff member responsible for the violation for one game. The basketball program, however, very likely landed commitments from two of the recruits. While Ohio State will not confirm which players were specifically involved, reports from the websites that track these things list just three players -- USC commit Elijah Weaver and two Ohio State commits, JaeDon Lee and Luther Muhammad -- as being on a visit that weekend.

As a result, the NCAA has ruled the three basketball players ineligible -- they have already been reinstated, a source said -- while ruling that Scoonie Penn, who coordinated the violation, was to be suspended for a game. That happened in December.

All because the recruits had a chance to visit the set of College Gameday and got a chance to meet some ESPN TV personalities who probably could not have cared less about the kids they were meeting.

At least this won’t really affect the Ohio State program.