Ohio State probe finds no academic misconduct

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- After an "impeccable" five-month investigation, a committee of Ohio State professors did not find any instance of academic impropriety involving Buckeyes athletes, the school announced Wednesday.

"The most important conclusion, in my mind, is that the university's academic integrity is sound," Ohio State President Karen Holbrook said.

Holbrook formed a 10-person internal faculty committee to review athletes' academic performances after The New York Times reported allegations in July that athletes had received preferential treatment and had cheated in class. In particular, the article said suspended star tailback Maurice Clarett passed a class in 2002 by taking oral exams after he walked out of a midterm and did not take the final.

Clarett was subsequently suspended for accepting improper benefits from a family friend and for lying about it to investigators.

The article quoted Paulette Pierce, an associate professor in Ohio State's African-American and African studies department, who said several football players had told her that tutors sometimes wrote papers for them.

She submitted an oral exam to Clarett after he had walked out of the midterm.

"He looked at it and didn't know a thing," Pierce said then.

A teaching assistant in the same department, Norma McGill, who was cited anonymously in the article, told The Associated Press that athletes sat together in three quizzes and they all got the same grade. She also said football players had forged the names of absent teammates on class attendance sheets.

A substantial portion of the committee's 31-page report -- which cost $100,000 to produce -- was blacked out to protect the privacy of athletes, said Barbara Snyder, a member of the committee and an interim executive vice president and provost at Ohio State.

Under the heading of "Results of the Investigation," more than seven pages of the nine-page response was almost entirely blotted out with black ink.

Chemistry professor Matthew Platz, who led the investigation, said the NCAA also reviewed the committee's report and indicated it will not take action.

"The facts in this case were very easy to uncover," Platz said.

Asked how the committee verified test scores and the origin of term papers, Platz said, "We talked to lots and lots of people. When we heard the same thing over and over again from lots of sources, we believed it."

The committee did recommend that teaching assistants receive more instruction and that the office that tutors athletes should add another academic counselor. The tutoring office also will be tied more directly to the university instead of the athletic department.

Athletic director Andy Geiger termed the investigative committee's work as "impeccable."

"The reputation of the university has been affirmed," Geiger said.

McGill has said that during the meeting with the NCAA and Ohio State's panel, she also was asked about wide receiver/cornerback Chris Gamble, linebacker E.J. Underwood and graduated wide receiver Chris Vance.

Vance was the only person who waived his privacy rights, and Holbrook said he was cleared of any wrongdoing.

The committee interviewed more than 60 people, but officials would not say who was questioned or what records were reviewed. Platz declined to say if the committee had sought the grade book that McGill said verified her statements.

Geiger was asked if Clarett might return to Ohio State's football team.

"I think it's a possibility," he said.

Messages seeking comment on the academic investigation were left at Clarett's mother's house and with his attorney.

McGill could not be reached to comment. No telephone number is listed for her in Kentucky or Ohio.

McGill was released from jail last week in Lexington, Ky., after pleading guilty to a charge of biting an officer's thumb as he tried to arrest her, according to Fayette District Court. She was sentenced to two years of probation.