Michigan State’s Miles Bridges donates $40 to remain eligible

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State says its compliance office discovered that Miles Bridges’ family had dinner with an agent last winter without his knowledge, committing an NCAA violation.

The school says the finding Friday made Bridges ineligible, leading it to apply for reinstatement, which was granted the next day by the NCAA.

“I didn’t get anything, that’s the truth,” Bridges said Sunday. “I just want to thank the compliance office and the NCAA for doing it.”

Bridges donated $40 to a charity of his choice as a condition of the reinstatement process. Yahoo! Sports published expense reports last week listing a $70 lunch with the player’s parents and a $400 cash advance to Bridges’ mother.

“I didn’t even know about the situation until the morning it came out, so I was surprised,” Bridges said.

The second-ranked Spartans are the top-seeded team in this week’s Big Ten tournament in New York, hoping to improve their NCAA Tournament positioning and secure a bid to the opening-round games at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

Bridges helped Michigan State win the Big Ten’s regular season championship outright Sunday with a victory at Wisconsin. After making two late foul shots to hold off the Badgers for a 68-63 win, Bridges insisted it wasn’t hard to focus during the game.

“It wasn’t hard because of my teammates and the great job the compliance office did helping me out,” he said. “I know my teammates and my coaches have my back all the time.”