An unspecified amount of Charleston Southern Buccaneer football players were suspended from one game after spending their scholarship money on school supplies from the campus bookstore instead of books. ESPN reports about a dozen student athletes didn’t play Saturday (Sept. 10) against Florida state for violating NCAA rules. Ben Robinson, a senior running back, posted the ruling to his Facebook page.
“So basically about 30+ players on my team including me have been suspended for using book money to buy other things in the book store like pencils, binders, and electronics, out of our school bookstore. We would have left over book money and the workers in the bookstore advised us to spend the money because we would not get it back, so we did.”
Offensive lineman Frank Cirone said the entire offensive line were among the athletes suspended, and later blasted the university for the suspension stating it could’ve been avoided at proper steps been taken to inform the players. Charleston Southern University athletic director Hank Small also announced head coach James Caldwell and a unnamed assistant would serve a one-game suspension.
“The rules regarding scholarship and book money are explicit on what the monies can be spent on. This is covered in our own student-athlete handbook. It only came to light recently that we may have some issues to clear up. We have to be sure there are no difficulties down the line in regards to having ineligible athletes participate.”