You know, this was not the run-of-the-mill secondary violation as GW portrayed it to be, because an assistant coach was fired over it. It may have started out as fairly minor, but it turned into something significant.
But in the debate about how minor it is, I can remember OSU being penalized pretty harshly for giving a player a nylon gym bag and a dinner at Damon's (an average local restaurant right next to campus). The player was Damon Flint, he had signed with OSU, but then the NCAA ruled that he was ineligible to play for OSU following the violation. What happened is right after a campus visit with Flint, his coaches and some of his HS teammates (3 of them is my guess), an OSU assistant coach gave the player's high school coach $60 to pay for a meal they just ate and transportation costs, and then gave the coach four nylon gym bags for the players. That was not considered a major violation, but Head Coach Randy Ayers was prevented from engaging in off-campus recruiting and his salary was frozen. OSU was put on a year of probation. Flint went on to play for Cincinnati. Interestingly, an assistant coach from Flint's high school that accompanied him on that trip, Mick Cronin, was promoted to video coordinator at Cincinnati right afterward (3 guesses who reported the violations to the NCAA).
If the NCAA was consistent, wouldn't the NCAA now make this player (whoever it is - perhaps Duane Wilson?) ineligible to play for Marquette if they have the same standards now? Perhaps Marquette should get a year of probation as well.