COLUMBUS, Ohio - Some Ohio State football coaches, assistants and department workers give season tickets to car dealerships in exchange for free cars, according to a report in the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch.

Sixty-four dealers are in the program, according to the report. The dealers provide 85 cars for various coaches and officials, including athletic director Andy Geiger, and even the wives of two coaches.

But while the practice might seem improper, it is not against NCAA rules. NCAA spokeswoman Jennifer Kearns told the newspaper that the free-car programs for non-players do not violate Division I regulations, and in fact, are commonplace.

For his part, Geiger is happy the NCAA is coming to the university’s campus to investigate allegations made by former Buckeyes star Maurice Clarett.

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“I hope there is the most thorough investigation in the history of intercollegiate athletics, because this is so bogus I can’t even characterize it,” Geiger told reporters after Saturday’s loss at Purdue.

In an interview with ESPN The Magazine released this week, Clarett accused coach Jim Tressel, his staff and school boosters of arranging for him to get passing grades, cars and thousands of dollars, including for bogus summer jobs.

Geiger said many of them were found to be baseless in investigations by the NCAA and the university.

“The allegations are so sweeping, so over the top that we are going to be forced to spend huge resources, so much time and energy and effort, to try and get this right,” Geiger said. “This isn’t going to be solved by the Michigan game or by (the time of) a bowl game. It will take months, I imagine.”

Tressel sternly shook his head no when asked if the article distracted his players from the game against Purdue, which the Boilermakers won 24-17.

On Sunday, The Columbus Dispatch reported that 64 car dealers are part of a program to give free cars to Ohio State coaches and members of the athletic department staff in exchange for perks, such as access to great tickets.

The program is allowed by the NCAA at Division I schools, and it is up to the schools to monitor it, NCAA spokeswoman Jennifer Kearns told the newspaper.

Clarett said Tressel set him up with a free loaner car from the same dealership where the coach gets his cars under the program.

Geiger said Tressel did try to help Clarett buy a car through the dealership that leases cars to several Ohio State coaches and administrators. But Clarett and his mother did not meet with the dealer to make arrangements to buy the car, Geiger said, and the dealership came to Columbus several days later to repossess it.