The Ohio State quarterback battle was set to be an extremely competitive competition this offseason between three legitimate Heisman Trophy candidates — whichever landed the starting job would almost assuredly jump to the top of Heisman odds lists. However, Braxton Miller may have taken himself out of the conversation before he even got a chance to compete thanks to some Instagram photos showing him promoting AdvoCare products.
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Miller reposted this image of himself with Authentik Fitness trainer Brandon Oshodin, who also distributes AdvoCare products. AdvoCare is a large marketing company that, for the most part, sells health and nutrition products. They use individual distributors — like Oshodin — to help sell the products and those distributors get a cut of the profits. Now, how does all of this work out to be a potential NCAA violation for Miller?
NCAA athletes, as we all know, are not allowed to make money off of using their name or image. AdvoCare even has rules and regulations stating what NCAA athletes can and cannot do, which includes "use photos of themselves on [the internet] or any other place where AdvoCare is mentioned. They are also not allowed to have an AdvoCare link in their Twitter or Instagram bio, until today, Miller had an AdvoCare link in his bio.
Here’s Advocare’s recommendations page RE: NCAA athletes and coaches pic.twitter.com/li8gatuect
— Ben Axelrod (@BenAxelrod) March 25, 2015
Then there's this video, which includes the caption "Putting in work with @braxtonmiller92. He just joined the Authentik X Advocare family we about to take it to another level."
Now, it seems fairly clear that Miller has committed some NCAA violations — their severity is unknown and will depend on if they find he received any money for these promotions — and there will undoubtedly be an investigation into the matter — Ohio State is already looking into it.
https://twitter.com/JGrega11/status/580753393716764672
While AdvoCare pretty clearly outlines what athletes can and cannot do — of which Miller did a few of those things he can't — this may be an unfortunate situation where Miller's trainer asked him to take the photo and add the link to his bio as a favor, with Miller not knowing the consequences. The punishment for these possible violations is unknown, but it would seem like a pretty silly thing for Miller to get in trouble for and possibly receive a suspension for, should it get that far.
[h/t LandGrant HolyLand]
