According to the Courier-Journal, Ware was held out of the bowl game for accepting $1,628 in impermissible benefits from someone fitting the NCAA’s definition of an agent. UK self-reported the violation, which the Courier-Journal obtained in an open records request.
Ware first met the agent, Jordan Reid, as a junior in high school while committed to Florida State. He told UK he viewed Reid as a big brother figure with whom he reconnected during his junior year of college. At that point, Reid and other members of his agency paid for Ware’s meals and gave him money, sneakers, and tickets and transportation to a concert in Cincinnati in January 2017.