Clemson Football Self-Reports 13 NCAA Violations and Some of Them Are Absurd

As sports fans have learned in the past day, the NCAA has some strict rules when it comes to student-athletes. Sometimes, the organization gets involved directly and metes out punishment. On other occasions, the universities step in themselves and get out ahead of any potential drama.

Right on cue, Clemson University has been revealed to have self-reported a number of minor NCAA violations for the 2018-19 school year. South Carolina newspaper The State got hold of the master list, which includes 13 secondary infractions by the Tigers football program. And some of them are just weird.

"Penalties for secondary violations usually are not as severe as those for major infractions, but they may be more than a slap on the wrist," says the NCAA of such infractions. "Secondary violation penalties are tailored to specific situations, such as recruiting restrictions being imposed in response to most recruiting violations. The rule outlining possible secondary-violation penalties includes possible fines, vacation of records and scholarship reductions, among other things."

Some violations ranged from student athletes appearing in a social media feature to Clemson publicizing a student-athlete signing who hadn't officially signed yet.

And then, there are just absurd infractions. For instance, the football program used confetti for a photo shoot during a student-athlete's official visit, which was is actually a no-no. Then, there was a student-athlete and his two high school coaches receiving special seating for an intrasquad scrimmage. Ooh, seating! Not allowed.

As ridiculous as some of this baker's dozen of violations sound, those are the rules, and the NCAA strictly enforces its regulations. All told, it's good that Clemson University got out ahead of these relatively minor headaches.