Arkansas has self-reported a secondary NCAA violation stemming from a photo shoot with three basketball players in a local magazine.
The school said the appearance of Rotnei Clarke, Courtney Fortson and Jeff Peterson in clothes from local retailers in the December issue of Celebrate Arkansas magazine constituted a rules violation because of the caption at the bottom that indicated where players’ “looks” could be found.
It was against NCAA rules, but Arkansas said that the secondary violation “outlined in the report does not allege or include any impermissible activity by any University of Arkansas coaches, student-athletes or staff members.” It also said “No Razorback coach, student-athlete or other athletic department official approved or had prior knowledge of any non-editorial use of the student-athletes’ images as part of the article.”
In other words: No one knew that advertisements for where the clothes could be found would be included in the magazine.
Arkansas also said the secondary violation will not affect the eligibility of the players involved.
Secondary violations are not uncommon, but this one occurred has created plenty of buzz over the past 24 hours. Arkansas attempted to answer some questions in its statement, saying that the magazine requested the photo shoot and magazine article — which was conducted before the season — through the Arkansas media relations department. The request was accommodated in a manner consistent with other such media requests.
Arkansas now considers the matter closed.
Here is the release in full:
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas has submitted a self-report of an NCAA secondary violation involving the improper use of men’s basketball student-athletes’ images in a local magazine article. Consistent with all other secondary violation reports, the University of Arkansas has forwarded the self-report to the Southeastern Conference. As the routine process for reporting secondary violations has been completed, the University of Arkansas considers the matter closed.
The secondary violation outlined in the report does not allege or include any impermissible activity by any University of Arkansas coaches, student-athletes or staff members. No Razorback coach, student-athlete or other athletic department official approved or had prior knowledge of any non-editorial use of the student-athletes’ images as part of the article. No compensation was provided by the media outlet for the article or the accompanying photos. This matter does not affect the eligibility of student-athletes.
The self-report was based on tag lines used to accompany photos of student-athletes referencing local businesses that provided clothing specifically for the photos in the article. The request for interviews and photos was made through the Arkansas Media Relations department and was accommodated in a manner consistent with other such media requests.
