Former Mississippi State athletic official Jimmy Bass committed a secondary NCAA violation before resigning, The Clarion-Ledger’s Ian Rapoport reported Sunday.
Bass abruptly resigned on Feb. 3 after serving as MSU’ senior associate director for development and marketing for less than six months. Bass entered the Bulldog Club into an agreement with Maroon & White magazine to distribute copies to its 5,800 members.
Because the Bulldog club is under the jurisdiction of the athletic department, it’s against NCAA rules for the organization to provide information on recruiting. Volume 3, issue 1 of the magazine contains a recruiting section.
Mississippi State compliance director Bracky Brett self-reported the violation to the NCAA. Bass, who has recently accepted a job at East Carolina, told the Clarion-Ledger he did not check with MSU compliance before making the agreement.
The violation has not affect on the football probation, said Brett, who noted he reports 12-20 secondary violations a year.
“It’s just a secondary violation … secondary, inadvertent violation,” said Brett. “These things happen. I can’t say I’m surprised.”
The agreement between the magazine and the Bulldog Club still stands, but the magazine will remove its recruiting information, and it will be reviewed by Mississippi State before being distributed.
“We will not cover recruiting whatsoever,” said Michael Wardlaw, Maroon and White magazine marketing director.
This incident sparks the question of whether the Bulldog Club should be independent from the athletic department.
Fred Nichols, a Bulldog Club member since its inception, said he would like to see the Bulldog Club “taken out of the athletic department.” Bass came to State following a lengthy tenure at North Carolina State. At NC-State he was in charge of funding for the Wolfpack Club, an organization similar to the Bulldog Club, but one that is not under the athletic department.