Seller acquiesced to GU’s bidding

It was at the request of Gonzaga University officials that the bloody gauze used by the Bulldogs’ Adam Morrison to stop a nosebleed during a recent men’s basketball game has been pulled – temporarily, at least – from the eBay Internet auction site.

Shannon Strahl, GU’s assistant athletic director for compliance, said she was able to e-mail the seller and request the seller cease and desist the online auction of the bloody gauze pad.

Strahl cited an NCAA bylaw that governs unauthorized promotional activities involving student-athletes, and prohibits the use of a name, picture or likeness of a student-athlete to endorse or sell commercial items.

According to Strahl, the university has made similar requests to sellers of other items bearing names or likenesses of GU athletes in the past in order to comply with the NCAA’s bylaw.

But such requests are not always honored, Strahl said.

The NCAA, Strahl explained, has no authority to discipline private parties.

“So it comes back to the institution,” she added. “It’s an NCAA violation if we’re aware of something like that and we don’t try to do something about it.”

If such a cease-and-desist request is not honored, Strahl said, the NCAA can impose penalties on the institution, “depending on whether we can prove to them that we’ve done our due diligence.”

In this case, the seller agreed to pull the gauze but indicated the item would be put back up for auction once Morrison is no longer at GU.

“I don’t know who the seller is,” Strahl said, “but they sent me back a message telling me they were sorry and didn’t realize all of this was impacted by NCAA rules. They said they didn’t want to hurt Gonzaga or Adam Morrison, so they were willing to comply.”

At the time the bloody gauze, which Morrison used and then discarded during the first half of Monday’s 81-71 win at Pepperdine, was pulled off eBay on Thursday, it had been viewed 13,084 times and had fetched a high bid of more than $60.

There are close to 100 Adam Morrison items, ranging from photos to autographed basketballs, on auction on eBay, but Strahl said the university does not normally monitor activity on the Internet site.

“We only look if someone makes us aware of it,” she explained. “The only reason (the gauze) became an issue is that we’ve never seen bloody gauze for sale before.”