UA: Photo shoot will not affect players' eligibility

By ArkansasOnline

Posted: December 15, 2009 at 2:42 p.m.

• Print item
• E-mail
• Share
• Tweet

FAYETTEVILLE — Three Arkansas players' eligibility will not be affected after they participated in a photo spread, which included the names of the stores that provided the clothes with the picture of the players, according to the University of Arkansas.

Rotnei Clarke, Courtney Fortson and Jeff Peterson appeared in the December issue of "Celebrate Arkansas," in a fashion photo spread. Having names of retail stores appear with the pictures of players raised questions of whether the fashion spread is a form of advertisement, which could be viewed as a violation of NCAA rules that prohibit athletes from using their names or images to promote the sale of commercial products or services or accept compensation for doing so.

Arkansas officials submitted a report of the secondary violation with the NCAA. The report was also forwarded to the Southeastern Conference. The school, in the release, considers the matter closed.

Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey also appeared in the photo spread, but he and his players did not have prior knowledge of any "non-editorial use" of the images as part of the article, the university said in a release Tuesday afternoon. Athletic department officials also did not have prior knowledge of any non-editorial use of the photos and no compensation was provided by the media outlet for the article or the accompanying photos, according to the UA.

The request for interviews and photos was made with Arkansas' media relations department like other media requests.

The photos were taken in Walton Arena.

Stay with WholeHogSports.com and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more on this story.

Comments

To report abuse or misuse of this area please hit the "Suggest Removal" link in the comment to alert our online managers. Please read our comment policy.

Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.