ESPN is reporting that an undetermined number of Charleston Southern football players will be suspended for Saturday’s game against Florida State. Ben Robinson, a senior running back for the team, wrote on Facebook that he and more than 30 of his teammates will be forced to sit out — making it all but impossible for Charleston Southern to even remain competitive.

Advertising

The players’ alleged crime? They bought some school supplies.

According to several social media posts, the players claim to have used money that they were given to buy books and instead spent some of it on other school supplies in the school’s books tore. Robinson says that “the workers in the bookstore advised us to spend the money because we would not get it back. And we did.”

Wide receiver Colton Korn wrote that they were the victims of “a witchhunt,” and added: “I’m bewildered at the at the lack of respect the university is showing us athletes and student body as a whole.”

Charleston Southern athletic director Hank Small’s response in a

statement published in the ESPN report: Hey, rules are rules.

“The rules regarding scholarship and book money are explicit on what the monies can be spent on. This is covered in our own student-athlete handbook.”

In other college football player suspension news: Mississippi State defensive end Jeffery Simmons makes his debut for the Bulldogs this weekend against South Carolina. Like the Charleston Southern players, he too was suspended for one game.

His alleged crime?

Repeatedly punching a woman while she was on the ground.

[h/t New York Post, For The Win]

[image via screengrab]

–

Follow Joe DePaolo (@joe_depaolo) on Twitter

Tags: College Football, Florida State University, NCAA