Clarett Will Miss at Least 3 Games

Suspended Ohio State tailback Maurice Clarett will miss at least three games because of the investigation into his filing of an exaggerated police report.

“It’s pretty clear that we’re looking at a healthy number of games,” Ohio State Athletic Director Andy Geiger said Thursday. “Multiple. And you can define multiple as more than two.”

Although there is no timeline for a decision on Clarett’s eligibility, the NCAA’s reinstatement process likely will take several days to run its course -- and that is if Ohio State is able to get a response to the NCAA next week.

The defending national champion Buckeyes open the season Saturday against Washington. Maurice Hall, a 5-foot-10, 200-pound junior, will start for Clarett.

Geiger originally had said he hoped the school’s response to the NCAA’s allegations against Clarett could be ready to go this week. Now it will not reach the NCAA offices until after the holiday weekend.

“We’ve got too many things going on,” Ohio State spokesman Steve Snapp said. “We’ve got the first game, with [Coach Jim] Tressel involved in that. The first part of next week would be my guess.”

The Buckeyes play host to San Diego State on Sept. 6 and then play No. 16 North Carolina State on Sept. 13. Asked if it was extremely unlikely for Clarett to be available for the game with North Carolina State, Geiger said, “Yes. That would be safe.”

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Fifteen Nevada Las Vegas athletes, including 11 football players, will face suspensions this fall for making nearly $2,500 worth of unauthorized phone calls, school officials announced.

The athletes will be required to repay the money, according to the university.

Athletic department spokesman Andy Grossman said NCAA rules require three of the football players to sit out tonight’s opening game against Toledo. Coach John Robinson can decide when the other eight players will serve their suspensions, he said. Grossman declined to name any of the players.

A investigation by the school’s Department of Public Safety found that from Aug. 2001 to May 2003, about 500 current or former students used a university personal identification number without permission to make $65,520 in long-distance calls.

The PIN belonged to assistant coach John Jackson, a former USC assistant from 1976-81.

Last fall, Jackson was involved in a controversy when he left the Rebels’ game against Wyoming with three minutes left in regulation to get to a boxing card in which he was promoting a fighter.

Nevada Las Vegas was leading by eight at the time, but Wyoming came back and tied the score and forced overtime. The Rebels won in overtime, 49-48.

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Nevada Coach Chris Tormey has suspended cornerbacks Leondre Lewis and Randy Landingham, running back Jamaal Jackson and defensive tackle Tim Sylvester for Saturday’s opener against Southern Utah because of an off-season violation of an unspecified team rule.... Vanderbilt Coach Bobby Johnson, who lost 10 games in his first season with the Commodores, was given a one-year contract extension. Johnson’s contract now runs through the 2007 season.