Braxton Miller bus autograph

There was one prominent Braxton Miller autograph on display on Wednesday - on the side of the Big Ten Network bus that stopped in Columbus.

(Doug Lesmerises)

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State has checked on autographs from quarterback Braxton Miller that are for sale on eBay by a broker who also lists multiple items from Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel and determined that no NCAA violations took place.

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith told cleveland.com today that Ohio State received a call on Sunday night that Miller was the college athlete with the second-most memorabilia with the broker, where Manziel had the most items for sale. Manziel is reportedly being investigated by the NCAA for selling his autographs for money.

“We were told our guy was number two,” Smith said. “So we started checking on that. We went through all that stuff, and there's no connection.”

Smith said the compliance department met with Miller sometime on Monday or Tuesday, and it was determined that most of the Miller merchandise for sale was signed during an hour-long autograph session held in Chicago in late July as part of Big Ten media days. The Buckeyes and Michigan had the longest lines there.

With Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany in Columbus today as part of his tour of the conference, Smith said he brought up that issue, and questioned whether such a large autograph signing was the best idea in the future, in light of the recent and past autograph sales that aroused NCAA concerns.

“A lot of that is from there, and we're doing it to ourselves,” Smith said.

Ohio State, for example, has greatly curtailed the autographs signed by its athletes and instead gives photo cards to its high-profile players, like Miller, to pass out. Less than three years removed from memorabilia violations that brought sanctions down on the football team, Smith said the athletic department chases any potential issues when they arise, and in this case, Ohio State is confident that Miller did nothing wrong.

"We've been on it," Smith said. "There's nothing there. There's nothing there."

South Carolina star defensive end Jadeveon Clowney also has items for sale with the same broker, as does Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. According to GoGamecocks.com, South Carolina checked out the Clowney items and found no violations.

“We have investigated things that have been on eBay with him and student-athletes before,” associate athletics director Chris Rogers told the site. Rogers, by the way, was Ohio State's assistant director of compliance before going to South Carolina last year. “In the situations I can say we looked into, there was no further for us to go, and we determined there was no violation.”

Updated at 3:30 p.m.