Miami Sanctions Coming?

[AUChizad]

@BFeldmanCBS

NCAA announces it will discuss COI's #Miami findings at 10 AM ET tomorrow

[Townhallsavoy]

"Miami will receive a two year bowl ban for loaning Alabama players money." 

[wesfau2]

Optimistic take: the ncaa staff is now freed up to pursue bama.

#neverhappen

[The Six]

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/21/3702792/miami-hurricanes-punishment-from.html

I wonder how hard the NCAA will come down on them in light of all that came out about how they investigated. Would be entertaining if the NCAA hammers them and this Hurricanes team turns around in two weeks and knocks out FSU.

[AUChizad]

3 scholarships a year over 3 years.

NCAA just said, fuck it, cheat all you want.

[The Six]

3 scholarships a year over 3 years.

NCAA just said, fudge it, cheat all you want WE'LL JUST BLAME AUBURN FOR IT.

FTFY

[wesfau2]

Wow.

The inmates have been cleared to run the asylum.

[AUChizad]

Copious blow, yachts, jetskis, hookers and their subsequent abortions, y'all.

Three schollies a year for three years.

Tattoos at Ohio State BURN THEM TO THE MOTHERFUCKING GROUND.

I gotta feel for Ohio State on this shit.

Not only were they clearly way way way inequitably punished, they stand to suffer what we did in 1993 and 2004 in consecutive years.

[GH2001]

Copious blow, yachts, jetskis, hookers and their subsequent abortions, y'all.

Three schollies a year for three years.

Tattoos at Ohio State BURN THEM TO THE MOTHERFUCKING GROUND.

I gotta feel for Ohio State on this shit.

Not only were they clearly way way way inequitably punished, they stand to suffer what we did in 1993 and 2004 in consecutive years.

And USC/Bush. And Auburn/Ramsey. Where one player was really in question for getting benefits. Multiple Miami players get multiple benefits over years with no control from within their athletic dept. And it's not even a slap on the wrist. Auburn and USC got big time probation, post season ban and huge loss of schollys. How much did Miami keeping themselves out of the ACC Cg last year help their case?

[WiregrassTiger]

I gotsta think that this lax penalty is a direct result of the means the NCAA used in the investigation and their fear of fallout from that. If not legal fallout, the PR nightmare that they could continue to face because they basically seemed to have a case that was built on info that came directly from an attorney for the booster that was busted and/or they paid for that info. IIRC, that's what gave them the proof.

Lack of subpoena power puts them in this type of situation but it was still concerning to me about the way that the NCAA went about collecting evidence--despite the fact that UM is guilty as sin and should be punished much worse.

[AUJarhead]

3 scholarships a year over 3 years.

NCAA just said, fuck it, cheat all you want.

Not exactly.  Miami had already self-imposed a 2 year bowl ban, 2011 and 2012.

[AUChizad]

And USC/Bush. And Auburn/Ramsey. Where one player was really in question for getting benefits. Multiple Miami players get multiple benefits over years with no control from within their athletic dept. And it's not even a slap on the wrist. Auburn and USC got big time probation, post season ban and huge loss of schollys. How much did Miami keeping themselves out of the ACC Cg last year help their case?

They didn't give up shit. North Carolina won their division.

Their "self imposed" bowl ban was for a 7-5 season. Would have gone to the equivalent of our BBVA Compass bowl, probably. Regardless, they still punished themselves way more than the NCAA punished them.

[GH2001]

I gotsta think that this lax penalty is a direct result of the means the NCAA used in the investigation and their fear of fallout from that. If not legal fallout, the PR nightmare that they could continue to face because they basically seemed to have a case that was built on info that came directly from an attorney for the booster that was busted and/or they paid for that info. IIRC, that's what gave them the proof.

Lack of subpoena power puts them in this type of situation but it was still concerning to me about the way that the NCAA went about collecting evidence--despite the fact that UM is guilty as sin and should be punished much worse.

Just me maybe but it appears to me they tanked it purposely.

[The Six]

[GH2001]

They didn't give up shit. North Carolina won their division.

Their "self imposed" bowl ban was for a 7-5 season. Would have gone to the equivalent of our BBVA Compass bowl, probably. Regardless, they still punished themselves way more than the NCAA punished them.

Oh I agree and I think it's BS. Now they'll go to a damn good bowl this year since they self imposed on a shitty bowl last year that would have made no difference in anything other than extra practice.

[AUChizad]

http://www.cbssports.com/general/writer/gregg-doyel/24122173/miami-football-got-away-with-cheating-lets-take-a-closer-look-at-that

Miami football got away with cheating? Let's take a closer look
October 22, 2013 11:19 am ET

Miami football didn't get away with cheating, and not because Miami spent 26 months in recruiting purgatory, then was docked nine scholarships over three years on Tuesday by the NCAA. Not to mention a self-imposed dungeon of UM president Donna Shalala's creation that denied the team two years in the postseason, including a hard-earned spot in the 2012 ACC championship game.

Miami didn't get away with cheating, but that stuff isn't why.

Miami didn't get away with cheating -- because Miami didn't cheat.

I know, I know. That's the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard given what you know of the facts, given what we all know of the facts, the main fact being this one: Miami booster Nevin Shapiro plied recruits and players with cash and other stuff. That's against the rules. Miami cheated!

Well, no.

Nevin Shapiro cheated. The kids in Miami uniforms? Sure, they received impermissible benefits. And that's against NCAA rules. So the school has to pay for that -- and Miami has. Miami has paid so much since this scandal broke that it makes you feel badly, or it should, for all those Miami grads with those Miami diplomas who have been made to feel like their alma mater, their school, was a disgusting bunch of cheaters.

In negative publicity alone, Miami has paid enormously. But also the purgatory of one recruiting cycle, then two, then most of a third coming and going without any word from the NCAA, which was so scared and overwhelmed and unethical in its own right that it had no idea what to do with the U.

While the NCAA was frozen, Miami was being cooked.

For 26 months this went on, plus the postseason bans and the players being held out. Miami paid. Did Miami pay in the normal way? Of course not, but this is the new normal. You can pine for the good old days when the NCAA decided you're a cheater and hammered you and said, "Trust us" -- and stupid us, we trusted the NCAA. But those days are gone. And hallelujah for that.

But about my opening salvo, that Miami didn't cheat. One clarifier before I move on: I'm referring to Miami football. I wrote that in the first two words of this whole story:

Miami football didn't get away with cheating ...

Miami basketball? It cheated. Frank Haith and his staff cheated. Period. No debating that.

Miami football? Miami football cheated? I'm debating that.

See, cheating implies -- insists -- on the notion that rules were broken for a competitive advantage. The rules broken in this case were compensation for slimy booster Nevin Shapiro's tiny, um, ego. That was the only advantage gained. Nevin Shapiro treated Miami football players like his own personal Viagra, using their favor to make him feel better about the size of his, um, self-image.

Miami as a football program didn't know what was going on. Should it have known, given the access it provided Shapiro? Maybe so, sure. But it didn't know, and therefore Miami football wasn't cheating.

It's as simple as that.

Don't come at me with, "By your logic, schools should hope that boosters pay off all players."

First, nobody has ever started a sentence to me with the words "by your logic" and ended that sentence without falling flat on their own face. (And man they've tried. On Twitter, they try all the time.) Second, no, schools shouldn't hope that boosters pay off players. You think Miami is glad Shapiro paid off players? Even if the NCAA hadn't docked any scholarships, you think Miami would look back on this episode and say, "We sure are glad Nevin Shapiro paid off players"?

Of course not. Schools want their boosters to operate within the rules because cheating boosters sometimes get caught. And when that happens, the school is humiliated and hammered by the court of public opinion if not the court of the NCAA. Sometimes the school is hammered in both courtrooms. So to be as clear as I can be: No, schools shouldn't hope for boosters like Nevin Shapiro to court players or recruits.

That's why I insist Miami didn't cheat -- and barring new information, that's my final opinion on this story. Opinions can evolve over time, and mine has. Look at what I wrote when this story broke in 2011. So astounded by the scope of Shapiro's overcompensation, I said Miami deserved the NCAA's death penalty.

But you know what? Times were different back then. Just two years ago, the majority opinion (and mine) was that college football players didn't need or even deserve to be compensated beyond their scholarship. So much has happened since then, including our knowledge of what football does to the brains of its labor. But also we've learned just how valuable -- as if we didn't know; we should have known -- the labor force is as we've watched college football coaches' salaries skyrocket past $6 million a year and seen the facilities being built and upgraded with price tags in the hundreds of millions.

So much money flowing around, and Miami is crushed because some idiot booster took players to a strip club?

Stupid. The world is changing. Opinions can change, but this doesn't even feel like an opinion. This feels like a statement of fact:

Miami football didn't get away with a damn thing.

TL;DR Cliffs:
"Cheating used to be cheating. Now every player deserves to get paid. They deserve the hooker abortions because they are hard working young individuals and the greedy universities are profiting off of them. This is now the only accepted narrative because Bama."

[AUChizad]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/22/randy-phillips-nevin-shapiro_n_4139876.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

Ex-'Cane Randy Phillips: Nevin Shapiro Threw Around Cash, University Of Miami Knew It

Sun Sentinel  |  By Shandel Richardson Posted: 10/22/2013 3:03 am EDT

Randy Phillips knew he was far from home the moment he headed toward the bathroom at a South Beach nightclub a few years ago.

Before he could make his way, he was stopped by the friend who accompanied him at the club. The friend asked if Phillips wanted an escort from his gun-carrying bodyguard.

It was then he knew how lavish life was going to be hanging with this new friend, former University of Miami booster Nevin Shapiro, now in prison for his role in a Ponzi scheme.

"I felt like I was on top of the world," Phillips said. "Man, I come from Belle Glade, Florida. We don't have a Wal-Mart. We don't have a movie theater. So imagine this."

Phillips, who played at UM from 2005-09, was one of the players named in the scandalous Yahoo Sports! report that shocked college football the summer of 2011. None of the accused has spoken publicly on his involvement with Shapiro.

Until now.

The university is expected to receive its penalty Tuesday after an investigation of the allegations, of which Phillips says most are true. He would know, considering he says he was Shapiro's right-hand man throughout college. There were cars. There were expensive meals. There were clothes. And, of course, there were women.

"I know if [Shapiro] said it, he did it," Phillips said. "There were no lies in there, not to my knowledge. ... The stuff that he said [in the Yahoo Sports! article], he had already told me had happened."

Phillips refused to be interviewed by the NCAA during its probe of the UM program.

Phillips became a passenger on the money train in the fall of his freshman year in 2005. He and a few teammates were invited to Shapiro's South Beach home, where they ate steaks and rode Jet Skis. Shapiro instantly took a liking to Phillips. So a friendship began, and it developed to a point that Phillips was referred to in the Yahoo article as the "Queen Bee" of rounding up players for Shapiro.

"From there on, it was just me and him," Phillips said. "I was like his runner."

Phillips says Shapiro lured him with the cash he swindled from investors. Shapiro was later sentenced to 20 years in prison for his involvement in a $930 million Ponzi scheme.

Shapiro threw around large sums of money to attract players. Phillips recalled a time they were at the Lucky Strike bowling alley/nightclub on South Beach when Shapiro used cash to help him gain the attention of a cocktail waitress.

"He said, 'Randy, you like that waitress? I'm going to give her 100 dollars each time she walks by,"' Phillips said. "She walked by at least 50 times."

Their relationship was simple. Phillips said he served as the link between Shapiro and the new crop of UM players. Shapiro, in turn, would take care of him financially. There were never bags of cash as portrayed in the movies.

Phillips says it was more like a few hundred dollars here for groceries. Maybe a couple hundred more there for toys for Phillips' son. Sometimes, Shapiro and Phillips would play pool in his home at $500 a game.

"I mean, he couldn't shoot pool," Phillips said. "And if I lost, I didn't have to pay 500 bucks. It was just like whatever I needed, he was there for me."

And other players.

Phillips confirmed Shapiro offered payouts for plays on the field, but only for big games, such as Florida or Florida State. Big hits and interception returns for touchdowns were worth $500. When they played the Gators in 2008, a $5,000 price tag was placed on knocking Tim Tebow out of the game.

A player could easily add a thousand bucks to the totals just by making a pistol-shooting gesture with his hands after making a big play. However, it had nothing to do with a gun. It was referred to as the "Double Ls," a reference to Shapiro's nickname of "Little Luke."

That was a twist on the "Uncle Luke" nickname of entertainer Luther Campbell, who notoriously took care of UM players in the 1980s and '90s.

"We were playing hard for Nevin, for the money," Phillips said.

Phillips said the university was aware of everything. He asked how could they be oblivious when Shapiro was so blatant?

"They couldn't recruit without Nevin," Phillips said. "It got to the point where Nevin was the recruiter. Every top star player came through Nevin's house. That's how they were using me."

Years later, Phillips, who is out of football after a shoulder injury ended his NFL career, says he has no regrets except for the fact it affected the program afterward.

In fact, he wishes he had taken more. Without their relationship, Phillips would have never experienced dinners at Prime 112, $8,000 bar tabs, wine from "the 1940 and '50s," and the days of sitting beside Shapiro on the couch as he made $50,000 bets on the Hurricanes, according to Phillips.

Phillips felt he was the victim of the NCAA trap, a system that prevents players from making money off their athletic ability. He grew up poor. He was a father. He needed assistance. He felt it was impossible to turn down the money.

What made it worse in Phillips' mind was he said university officials introduced him to Shapiro, yet the players and coaches received most of the blame.

"It's like: How did the university protect us from people like this who was donating money, whose name was on the player's lounge, who bought us all these TVs and video games?" Phillips said.

"Of course, I'm going to want to shake his hand and be cool with him. ... It's kind of like they put us in a situation where this guy was our savior."

[Townhallsavoy]

Disgusting. That's all this is.  It's disgusting. 

I know there's a staunch conservative crowd here, but I know from my own experience and dealing with former students that 18, 19, and even 20 and 21 year olds are still young adults.  They're damn near children.  Especially if you take them straight from high school and put them on a college campus where their bills are paid for, their meals are taken care of, and their only real responsibility is playing a sport.

Going lax in a situation where nefarious rules violations occurred - and really nasty ones too like a rich guy providing a path to debauchery and immorality - the NCAA just officially stated that they do not care about the safety and guidance of their young amateur athletes. 

[AUChizad]

Disgusting. That's all this is.  It's disgusting. 

I know there's a staunch conservative crowd here, but I know from my own experience and dealing with former students that 18, 19, and even 20 and 21 year olds are still young adults.  They're damn near children.  Especially if you take them straight from high school and put them on a college campus where their bills are paid for, their meals are taken care of, and their only real responsibility is playing a sport.

Going lax in a situation where nefarious rules violations occurred - and really nasty ones too like a rich guy providing a path to debauchery and immorality - the NCAA just officially stated that they do not care about the safety and guidance of their young amateur athletes.

Agree. And the NCAA went HAM on Penn State where no extra benefit was involved at all. That was purely moral. Here you have the benefits AND drugs & hooker abortions.

No consistency whatsoever.

[AWK]

Here is the real question in all of this:  If you don't pay the hooker for the initial services, why should you pay for the hooker abortion?