COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State coach Urban Meyer was prepared today when asked on the Big Ten coaches teleconference to respond to the recent Sporting News article that questioned some aspects of how he ran his program at Florida and the state in which he left the Gators.

Meyer on four occasions questioned the intent of the story, but the one point he said should be in bold and underlined in his response to some of his recruiting practices at Ohio State is "this is not an NCAA violation. There is not one turned in. And there's a pretty good track record there as far as compliance with the NCAA."

The first-year Ohio State coach was referencing recruiting questions first broached by Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema, and Meyer said "I'm not sure why that keeps coming up," knowing it was a hot issue several months ago.

The Sporting News story said that Ohio State had NFL players call recruits and OSU coaches "bumped" into Cleveland Heights offensive lineman Kyle Dodson, then a Wisconsin oral commitment, during a recruiting dead period. Dodson then signed with Ohio State. Bielema told reporters in Wisconsin on Tuesday that what was reported in the story "was getting closer" to the real issue. Bielema also said when he called Meyer about the issue, Meyer handled it very quickly.

As I wrote previously about this after the Sporting News story came out, the distinction between a violation being committed and not being committed is huge. One is breaking the rules. The other may be ruffling feathers. And that always will remain a distinction. If Meyer is caught breaking NCAA recruiting rules, then the story changes.

As for the charge of favoring some players, Meyer said, "that's probably a correct statement. We did do that. We do that here, we did it at Bowling Green and Utah. If you go to class, you're a warrior, you do things the right way off and on the field, you're completely committed to helping us win, you're going to get treated really good. ... Guys that don't go real hard and aren't committed, yeah, it's real difficult. So you can't please everyone."

Meyer didn't address any more of the specific allegations, that three star players sat out with what Meyer said were injuries when in fact they had failed drug tests, or that receiver Percy Harvin attacked position coach Billy Gonzales. Gonzales, now an assistant at Illinois, did tell reporters there that the reporting of the incident was "inaccurate."

After six years with the Gators, Meyer said he and his family still loved Florida and they always will. He said he objected to several aspects of the story.

"I'm extremely proud of what our players and coaches accomplished," Meyer said. "We were hired to graduate players, we did that. ... We were hired to win games, we did that. Follow the rules, we did that. And recruits great classes, we finished in the top five every year."

Meyer said he has heard from many former players and assistants since the publication of the story. And he echoed what he has made clear since his hiring at Ohio State as well, that he will always defend his players.

"Throwing great players, not good players but great players, under the bus like that, I don't get the intent," Meyer said. "I'll fight for those guys. Those guys did a lot of great things for the University of Florida, to call those guys out four, five years later, I'm not sure of the intent. But I'll always fight for those guys."