COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The NCAA placed Ohio State on three years probation on Friday and ordered it to pay back tournament revenue for violations including using an ineligible player, the resolution of a two-year investigation into the men's basketball program run by fired coach Jim O'Brien.
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said the amount likely would be about $800,000 in tournament revenues for the four years in which Boban Savovic played. He received improper gifts, including housing and cash, from a booster.
Ohio State also will lose credit for all records from its four NCAA tournament appearances from 1999 through 2002 and must take down the 1999 Final Four banner which hangs from the rafters in Value City Arena.
Ohio State escaped another year without postseason play. The NCAA's announcement came about two hours before the top-seeded Buckeyes' quarterfinal game against Penn State in the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis.
The NCAA came down hard on O'Brien and former assistant coach Paul Biancardi, now the head coach at Wright State University in Dayton. If O'Brien tries to get a job at another college, he and his new school must appear before the NCAA's infractions committee to discuss whether he will face additional limitations.
Biancardi was prohibited from recruiting until Oct. 1, 2007, and Wright State was required to make sure that he does not or else it will have to face additional scrutiny from the NCAA's infractions committee.