The South Carolina athletic department released 23 NCAA or SEC violations this week when the Associated Press requested the program's open records. All of these violations took place between August 2015 and July 2016, and nine of them involved the football team.
Of the nine violations committed by the football program, six occurred after Will Muschamp was hired in December. All of the violations appear to be fairly minor, such as former head coach Steve Spurrier mentioning to reporters that a former NFL player's daughter was visiting the campus in Columbia.
Of the 23 violations, 22 were considered Level III, meaning they were isolated incidents or did not give the school a significant advantage. The AP's report points out that the nature of the majority of these violations is not the same as that of the violations that put schools in the national headlines for weeks at a time.
Four of the violations pertained to Dawn Staley's women's basketball team, including one where an ineligible player was given meals, lodging and transportation. The Gamecocks had three ineligible players in 2015-16 who sat out due to NCAA transfer rules.
Many of the violations are fairly insignificant, such as a football manager not being enrolled as a full-time student or an assistant coach accidentally texting a recruit instead of a current player, thus not giving the Gamecocks a significant advantage in recruiting or in-game performance.
There are two pending football violations as well. The first involves a player who received "impermissible transportation" for nearly four months, and the other pertains to recruits who were provided lodging on an unofficial visit.