They violated their amateur status via an NCAA rule. Regular students do not have team jerseys that have any market value in which to curry goods, services or favors. So he cheated they cheated the rules as written and should have been deemed ineligible from that incident forward. I am not really sure why the new classes coming in have to be told over and over about these things; God knows they see and gear about it before they walk in, so it should be REAL EASY to understand; so it stands to reason they think they are above it or can simply get away with it.
I would not say they cheated. I would say they broke a written rule. They are not cheating anyone. IF the universities did not want them to have those gifts, they should have never gave it to them in the 1st place. There is a difference between cheating and breaking a law/rule.