The Rest of College Football

[Dr. Strangelove]

Also, this all went down while Paul Dee was still AD. Given that he was AD during the trouble Miami had in the 90's too, I have no idea how he can now sit in judgment of other schools at the NCAA

[lineygoblue]

SMU- them

[iam416]

The Paul Dee angle is interesting. Doesn't look good for Miami. My sense of Yahoo is that they're not exactly "cutting edge" or "scooping" everyone type of people, but what they do have, they have. The Tressel stuff wasn't a scoop, per se, but they had it and stuck to the core facts. If they're doing the same with Miami, then Miami is F'd.

It also appear, obviously, that Yahoo is the NCAA's preferred organization to leak to.

[Dr. Strangelove]

The Paul Dee angle is interesting. Doesn't look good for Miami. My sense of Yahoo is that they're not exactly "cutting edge" or "scooping" everyone type of people, but what they do have, they have. The Tressel stuff wasn't a scoop, per se, but they had it and stuck to the core facts. If they're doing the same with Miami, then Miami is F'd.

It also appear, obviously, that Yahoo is the NCAA's preferred organization to leak to.

Yep, I would describe them as thorough and not much in a rush to beat others getting the news posted first (unlike certain Entertainment and Sports Programming networks)

[Dr. Strangelove]

I think the story has been updated a bit. Note the extensive list of names Shapiro is making allegations about on the right. Including seven assistant coaches

http://sports.yahoo.com/investigations/news;_ylt=Aoqh1WlbNMb8wp7r6SDardo5nYcB?slug=cr-renegade_miami_booster_details_illicit_benefits_081611

[SeanB]

That guy sounds like he has zero remorse about anything that he's done. What a schmuck.

Could this be the end of Miami football? Would the NCAA ever use the death penalty again? Or are they just going to cripple them so badly they might as well just shut it down anyway!

[Jamie H]

How can violations at Miami be "unexpected"? Wasn't the big angle to the story that something was going to come out at a school where it wasn't expected? Miami practically wrote the book on being a renegade program back in the 80's.

[entropy]

Also shows how little the NCAA does. As the guy said, you just had to follow him around

[iam416]

I can't see this as a death penalty case. Right now, it's an out-of-control booster who happened to be neck deep into the program. Bad stuff, no doubt, but not SMU. I mean, people really need to understand how totally out-of-control SMU was. And today, a lot of folks thinks that that SMU wouldn't get the death penalty after seeing the effects.

Death penalty talk, IMO, is just sensationalism from journalists with nothing to talk about (ie., everyone on ESPN, who once again got owned by Yahoo).

As a sidenote, I will enjoy watching how ESPN spins this into their own BREAKING NEWS story! Heh. Clowns.

[Dr. Strangelove]

George Dohrmann is probably pissed. Goodbye Pulitzer!!

[lineygoblue]

I agree that the NCAA probably won't give the death penalty ever again. The death penalty basically took SMU from a top ten program, to a Division II team, and they still haven't fully recovered.

But, if a lot of these allegations are true, Miami could get tweeked pretty good. Loss of several scholarships, bowl bans and loss of television appearances could all be on the table.

[JRB]

Also, this all went down while Paul Dee was still AD. Given that he was AD during the trouble Miami had in the 90's too, I have no idea how he can now sit in judgment of other schools at the NCAA

Paul Dee isn't the chairman of the COI any more-- he stepped down last year. The new chairman is Dennis Thomas, the commissioner of the MEAC.

I could see another death penalty case happening eventually, but I don't think this would be one. Miami's last major infractions case in 1995 was closer to warranting that sort of penalty than this one would be, IMO, though the allegations against the assistant coaches figure to be especially troubling to NCAA investigators. The institutional wrongdoing alleged here doesn't rise to the level of the 1995 Pell Grant fraud case, IMO, and it doesn't approach the total compliance disaster that was SMU football from the 1970s to 1986.

[iam416]

True re Dee. But Dee was on the CoI when they laid the smack down on USC -- penalties I think some would consider "aggressive."

[JRB]

The only way I'd think this case would draw the most severe NCAA sanction is if the NCAA waives the statute of limitations due to the length and scope of the violations, and somehow finds that the Shapiro case is part and parcel of a larger pattern of institutional malfeasance. Basically, they'd have to claim that Miami never regained institutional control of their program after 1995, and these violations were a direct result of continuing institutional indifference to rules compliance. I suppose that's possible (and given that Butch Davis coached Miami from 1995 to 2000, the argument merits consideration), but I think it's highly unlikely the NCAA tries to make that case. They certainly don't need to make such an effort to justify serious penalties-- the allegations as they are would support harsh sanctions. Assuming these charges stick, Miami's probably looking at the sort of penalties they got in 1995, and that might be generous.

[Hannibal]

Damn. What a bunch of idiots. It probably wouldn't have taken much money or effort to keep this guy quiet. Some cash for bail maybe? Miami must be full of idiots.

Once again, the jock sniffer mentality amazes me. This guy is in prison for being a crook, and he was a crook so that he could spend his stolen money on keeping athletes happy. Talk about your low self esteem and misplaced priorities. And that seems to be a common theme. Remember that chick who was embezzling from her employer and spending money on Notre Dame football players?

The NCAA needs to extend probationary periods for the most severe violations. There's obviously a cultural problem at Miami that stretches across generations. The only way that it will ever be fixed is by leaving a smoking crater where the Miami program used to be. Either that, or we need to toss in the towel on the concept of amateur athletics and accept that our college kids are semi-pro.