Miami NCAA investigation - NCAA hands out fines, suspensions to the 8 players

[Rizman]

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Attorney-Ponzi-scheming-Miami-booster-has-detai?urn=ncaaf-wp5041

...

Then again, the NCAA has already proven itself more than willing to bring down a heavy-hitting program on the word of a convicted felon with an axe to grind, as it did last year when it sided with Reggie Bush's disgruntled business partner, Lloyd Lake, in order to drop killer sanctions on USC and effectively excommunicate former Trojan assistant Todd McNair from big-time college football. If it can do it then, it can do it again. And what they find in Mr. Shapiro's files should make for some very, very interesting reading.

[smazza]

one would think usf would have made inroads into miami area for top recruits by now

[Triple B]

one would think usf would have made inroads into miami area for top recruits by now

[Rizman]

My favorite part.  Hey MasterMiami2001 please help explain this.

http://thebullspen.com/index.php?topic=77851.20

In an effort to substantiate the booster’s claims, Yahoo! Sports audited approximately 20,000 pages of financial and business records from his bankruptcy case, more than 5,000 pages of cell phone records, multiple interview summaries tied to his federal Ponzi case, and more than 1,000 photos. Nearly 100 interviews were also conducted with individuals living in six different states. In the process, documents, photos and 21 human sources – including nine former Miami players or recruits, and one former coach – corroborated multiple parts of Shapiro’s rule-breaking.

[usfvictor]

"He attended the University of South Florida but never lost his boyhood allegiance to the Hurricanes, who he followed as a kid."

http://sports.yahoo.com/investigations/news;_ylt=As5y8.c_PNB1ckkRigrr8z87MuB_?slug=dw-who_is_nevin_shapiro_081611

[Gismo]

Here is another one by Yahoo. Quite long.

http://sports.yahoo.com/investigations/news;_ylt=AvTkESPVsSuF0rC21.dMImg5nYcB?slug=cr-renegade_miami_booster_details_illicit_benefits_081611

[cygnus34]

Nevingate has hit high gear at the University of Miami, and with the NCAA swooping into town this week to investigate it is becoming clear that convicted Ponzi schemer Nevin Shapiro's long-running relationships with athletic department personnel and athletes is evolving into a Category 5 Hurricane.

Sources are telling CaneSport that the NCAA list of interviewees is extensive. It includes current and former athletes, former coaches and other athletic department employees and support personnel.

In hours of sessions with Federal and NCAA investigators, Shapiro is believed to have documented dozens, maybe even hundreds, of social sessions he allegedly had with UM personnel and athletes over the past dozen years, at his home and on his yacht and many places in between.

Sorting out the mess, what is true and what is fabricated, how much of it might be a yarn woven with the intent to get attention and maybe sell the story into a book or movie, will be as monumental a task for the NCAA as it has been for Miami over the past year.

Stuck in the middle will be a university flirting with the danger of being made into an example. In so many ways Miami tries to be a picture of compliance, constantly educating all constituents on the rules. And in so many others, it had personnel at all levels that were recklessly charmed by a ruthless criminal into this crisis of massive proportions.

Stuck in the middle will be teenage kids who may have become caught up in the lavish lifestyle of a guy who so badly wanted to be around them, a jock sniffer on steroids. Shapiro is now claiming to have entertained players on his yacht and to have bought them gifts such as suits and jewelry.

Stuck in the middle will likely be some of the biggest names in the National Football League, former Canes who may have at one time accepted a gift from a man who was stunningly generous with other people's life savings. Names that Shapiro mentioned to The Miami Herald last year included Chicago Bears standout Devin Hester, New York Giants safety Antrel Rolle and Carolina Panthers linebacker Jon Beason. Sources say several more have been added to the list that was recently provided to the NCAA.

Everyone stuck in the middle of Shapiro's path of wrath will have another thing in common, too - they will have dared turned their back on Shapiro at his greatest time of need.

That desperate moment came when Shapiro got caught by the Feds for defrauding about 50 investors of more than $930 million in a grocery products diversion scam. Shapiro's empire came crashing down. He needed money to fund his defense. And it is believed that all or most of those players and coaches that he had wined and dined, that he alleges he gave cash to through the years, all said no to him or wouldn't take his calls from jail. The snubs made him feel, in his own words, as told to The Miami Herald, like "a used friend."

The University of Miami made Shapiro's hit list when it dared take Shapiro's name off a room inside its building that he had committed to sponsor for just under $150,000, never mind that some of the bill went unpaid and he reportedly was still allowed to sit in his prime location skybox at Sun Life Stadium.

The NCAA, engulfed in a mission to try to clean up a college athletics house that has mud slung all over its walls and cracks in its roof, will be stuck in the middle also.

The NCAA may actually have a greater dilemma here than anyone involved in this mess.

What does the NCAA do?

Does it throw all kinds of sanctions at Miami because the school compliance department and its athletic directors had no idea this donor was a criminal and were unsuccessful in keeping people away from him?

Isn't that too easy?

Doesn't this grotesque situation call for more than simply taking away bowl games and scholarships, setting the football program back several more years, making the athletic department crumble amid a financial crisis and then simply moving on to the next case?

Isn't this an educational seminar for what can snowball very quickly in college sports? There was no competitive advantage gained here. Miami has stunk in both football and basketball for many of the years that Shapiro was embedded into the program.

At what point do the institutions stop taking the hits in these situations?

Colleges like Ohio State, North Carolina and USC get tarnished and crippled. Coaches like Jim Tressel and Butch Davis lose their jobs, maybe fairly, maybe not.

And now, here in the vice grips, appears to be the Darth Vader of them all, The U, a small private school which despite all its football swagger might be able to least afford being pierced by the NCAA Enforcement Sword.

Any money that Nevin Shapiro donated or spent on tickets and skyboxes, even gas for his yacht, is a pittance compared to the hit Miami's athletic bank account will take if it is slammed into irrelevance by the NCAA over this situation.

The University says that when Shapiro began making his allegations nearly a year ago, he and his attorneys refused to provide any facts to the school. It was left on its own to investigate and CaneSport reported Monday that those investigations pretty much led them nowhere, that they were able to unearth little wrongdoing by department employees and athletes in relation to Shapiro.

Miami kept the NCAA abreast of its own investigative activities and has been cooperating fully with the NCAA Enforcement office. But Shapiro provided a great deal to the NCAA that he would not give Miami, and now this joint investigation is proceeding to a whole new level.

Even though many former players are expected to be involved before investigators are done sorting through the wreckage of this situation, there is a great deal of focus on the past four years because that is the NCAA statute of limitations on rules violations.

Former Coach Randy Shannon, fired in December after a fourth season, hated dealing with boosters like Shapiro. Shannon used to anger many in the department by refusing to attend most booster events. When it came to Shapiro, he told everyone he refused to even talk to the guy.

This snub by the head coach was such an issue that sources tell me Shapiro was obsessed by it, constantly complaining to Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt, assistant coaches and other staff members about this perceived lack of respect by the head coach. People would be driving in their cars or having dinner with their families and Shapiro would be firing off text messages and voice mails to them cursing Shannon for ignoring him.

But apparently some staffers and possibly players didn't listen to Shannon, maybe the most powerful figure in the athletic department during those critical four years.

Is that lack of institutional control? Or are those naïve decisions by individuals, including kids simply getting caught up in the glitz of it all and making mistakes?

Weren't Shannon's warnings an ironic example of ultimate institutional control?

Who gets the blame?

What is a University to do if people simply don't listen to the highest figures in charge?

These days at Miami, it is Al Golden's burden. The new head coach goes to great lengths to avoid messes like this. Every player is given what is called a "Cane Code" which addresses things like boosters, extra benefits and agents.

"We do something every day. There's not only a compliance component, there's an educational component," Golden said. "Every day this summer these kids got an email from me about the things that have occurred in Chapel Hill or Georgia Tech or Ohio State.

"It's important that if there are things there, that we are honest, that we don't compromise our integrity and we move forward. Since I've been here the kids have been incredible. We'll make sure we get to the bottom of it. We're going to continue to be proactive and we have to make sure the third parties stay away from our student-athletes. Since I've been here this is the tightest compliance department that I've been around. What I mean by that is that they are strong, they have incredible man power, are on top of everything. For me that's good as a head coach because it helps you sleep at night."

Nobody, not UM, not the NCAA, has any idea how much of what Shapiro is throwing out there is actually true. The fact that he is a convicted Ponzi schemer obviously shoots gaping holes into his credibility. But his attorney, Maria Elena Perez, says that a great deal of documentation supporting Shapiro's claims has been provided to Federal and NCAA investigators.

While it all is being sorted out, CaneSport has learned that Shapiro has been writing "gotcha" letters from a Federal prison in Virginia to some of the individuals he has fingered to the NCAA.

This crusade of revenge is his calling card now.

Gone are the promises of 26 percent returns on bogus grocery investments, replaced by promises to make everyone quake in their shoes.

What does the NCAA do about all of this?

The answer to that question is being anxiously awaited across the landscape of college sports because there is no doubt that the next Nevin Shapiro is building his legend right now in towns all across the United States.

[usfvictor]

I had a feeling this would somehow be connected with USF lol..

In response to MasterMiami2001, you're probable right, nothing much will come of this besides a few players being suspended or slap on the wrists. However, stranger things have happened and the NCAA could go bat s h i t crazy and try to make an example of UM, as the last year he did something was only 6 years ago. I know there's the whole 4 year statute of limitations, but in one of the article it states there are exceptions to that.

In addition, to the Chick remark and attaining a better education at UM, that's bs. UM isn't exactly leaps and bounds in front of USF in terms of academics, especially if you differentiate by major.  

[cygnus34]

USF VICTOR,

MIAMI, is Leaps and Bounds higher than USF academically!  The U is the highest rated U in the state and third in the A.C.C. behind DUKE, & GA.TECH ONLY.    WAKE UP!

A media horde descended on Greentree Practice Field this morning to learn more about allegations of rule breaking by Hurricane football student-athletes.

Players were off limits to reporters today, so it was left to coach Al Golden to discuss any potential wrongdoing. And he was quick to point out the irony of the situation - the first-year coach wasn't at UM when the alleged impropriety took place, and he said he only just learned of the NCAA inquiry.

"I'm as surprised as all of you and I'm learning and gathering information as you are," Golden said. "I just found out. Clearly there were some articles yesterday, but in terms of contact with the NCAA, I haven't had any. Our AD [shawn Eichorst] and President [Donna Shalala] have. Other than that it's joint effort, a cooperative effort. Once we learned of the allegations we wanted to make sure we're doing our due diligence and obviously want to cooperate with the NCAA."

Golden said the NCAA won't let him query his student-athletes on whether any improper gifts were received from Nevin Shapiro, a former booster who was convicted in connection with a massive Ponzi scheme and is now pointing his fingers at UM.

Asked his message to any players who may have been involved in illicit activity, Golden said, "Well, to be honest. To be truthful and move forward. I'm learning of it, so it's hard for me to comment on that. As we move forward there's only one way to go here - to be honest. Clearly we don't need these types of things to be a great team. We don't need it.

"This is tough for me to discuss because this happened all before I got here, and certainly Mr. Eichorst feels the same way. So we take this stuff seriously, but at the same time, boy, we've made so much progress in the last eight months that we don't want to go backwards."

Golden added that "This is not aligned with the University's mission or goals or values. It's not aligned with Mr. Eichorst or the President. Certainly not mine. And, again, I've been in this profession for 16, 17 years and haven't had any NCAA issues. It's important that if there are things there that we don't compromise our integrity and we move forward. Since I've been here the kids have been incredible. We'll make sure we get to the bottom of it."

UM released a statement today stating "When Nevin Shapiro made his allegations nearly a year ago, he and his attorneys refused to provide any facts to the University of Miami. The University notified the NCAA Enforcement officials of these allegations. We are fully cooperating with the NCAA and are conducting a joint investigation. The University of Miami takes these matters very seriously."

It's expected the NCAA will interview several current student-athletes while at UM, but Golden said he's unaware who will be interviewed or when. Golden also isn't sure how long the NCAA will be on campus or how many NCAA interviewers are in Coral Gables.

"They're not going to include me in this process, and to be honest with you what we've learned from some of the other incidents that have occurred recently is that (players are) not permitted to discuss it with me," Golden said. "So if they do contact a student-athlete, they're going to talk to them specifically and not include me in the situation."

Golden says his main focus now is to keep this team on track with the season-opener just three weeks away.

"We have to," Golden said. "That's part of being tough and having unity and staying together. We'll stay focused. I'm certain of that. Again, we're disappointed, but we're not discouraged. There's going to be a life lesson here. We're talking about allegations from a man that's behind bars. If these do hold some truth then we'll deal with it. There's no other way to do it."

Here's what else Golden was talking about on Tuesday:

Q: What do you do to ensure this doesn't happen again?

Golden: We do something every day. I can't speak for the previous coaches that have been here, but for instance every player has a Cane code, and in that Cane code we talk about extra benefits. We talk about agents, all those different things. There's not only a compliance component, there's an educational component. Every day this summer these kids get an email from me about the things that have occurred in Chapel Hill or Georgia Tech or at Ohio State. We're going to continue to be proactive and we have to make sure the third parties stay away from our student-athletes. I said this to Shawn yesterday: Since I've been here this is the tightest compliance department that I've been around. What I mean by that is that they are strong, they have incredible man power, are on top of everything. For me that's good as a head coach because it helps you sleep at night. So Dave Reed and his group do a tremendous job.

Q: If you knew when you took this job what you know now, would you have still taken this job?

Golden: Yeah, absolutely. This is the University of Miami. It's a special place. It is. I can't tell you enough that this is an incredible place. You have a chance to do so many wonderful things whether it's academically or from a football standpoint. We're not going to let this knock us backwards. We have great kids on this team, to the extent that they may have made a mistake - okay, that's fine, but that's also a part of growing up. And what we have to teach them now is that if something did occur let's be honest and move forward.

Q: What was your emotion when you found this out?

Golden: Well, you can probably see I'm disappointed, but I'm more disappointed because of the strides that we have made as a football program, the culture, understanding how to conduct ourselves in the community and those type of things, and how hard these kids have worked and how much leadership the seniors have provided. We've made great strides. I don't know the extent of it, but we're going to look at it as we're disappointed about it but we're not discouraged and are going to keep moving forward.

Q: Are you concerned there may be an effect on commitments, recruits or current players that may get worried and transfer?

Golden: I don't think so. I really don't believe it's to that level. I think clearly the student-athletes that are committed to us know who we are, know what our core values are, know what we're committed to. Again, the timing is unfortunate because we've been doing so many good things. Our kids are doing a great job in practice, recruiting is going well. So the timing is unfortunate. The allegations, if some prove to be true, we'll get it corrected.

Q: So you can't talk to the team about this?

Golden: The NCAA, if they're doing an investigation, will not have me interfere with their interaction with our student-athletes.

Q: So you can't say to the kids `Is this true? Tell me what happened.'

Golden: Nope. I'm out of it. I'll be completely out of it. We want it that way, want to be cooperative. It's unfortunate. It's hard for me to stand up here and defend something that occurred three, four, five, six years ago. My record with the NCAA, our staff's record, our commitment to our student athletes since we've been here speaks for itself and we're going to leave it at that.

Q: Why weren't players available to talk to the media today?

Golden: I'm living day by day right now. We just had the meeting where everybody was told make sure we cooperate and all that. So I don't think it was fair to have them come out here (and talk to the media). We're getting ready to practice so from that standpoint we didn't think it was fair to the kids.

Q: There's been an internal investigation here already?

Golden: It is true. It's a joint venture. As soon as Shawn got wind of something we're making sure we look back at all the years. We're doing all the things we should be doing.

Q: So the investigation internally started just now, not previous to you and Shawn getting here?

Golden: I don't know that. This is the first I've heard of it, so I don't know.

Q: How tough is it to police guys like that around the program?

Golden: It's tough. I'm going to reserve judgment until I learn more. We have to continue to do that. We're not immune to it. If it can happen in small college towns across the country it can certainly happen in Miami. I'm going to learn and see what the facts hold and we'll go from there.

Q: Moving on to football-related questions, did Curtis Porter get nicked up the other day?

Golden: No. Curtis is doing well. Curtis has had a good camp. He's been running with the ones, has had a good camp. I appreciate his attitude, especially the last four practices. I think he's made a lot of progress.

Q: Talk about the depth at running back. Can they carry this offense?

Golden: Absolutely they can carry an offense. (Eduardo) Clements and (Darion) Hall have been a real pleasant surprise for us this training camp, and Hagens is not just a fullback - he's also a one-back. So we've used Hagens in multiple capacities as an H-back, fullback and one back. Clearly Lamar (Miller) and Michael (James) are fighting it out for the starting job, but it's an interesting battle there between Hall and Clements for three, because Hall coming off the injury is in shape now. He's starting to look like we thought he would. And Clements is playing tailback.

Q: There were five touchdown passes in the scrimmage. Were they all long drives?

Golden: We did drive the ball early in the scrimmage. One was on our minus-two, and one of those was the actual interception that occurred down inside the 10. So it was a 90-yard drive. The other one culminated in a field goal, which was a bomb by Jake (Wieclaw) which I'm really excited about. So most of them were drives. There were a couple of late (scores). The last one was a 70-yard drive on a two-minute drill.

Q: Talk about the progress of the quarterbacks.

Golden: It's a close call. We're over 70 percent (completions) as a group, five touchdowns, one interception. And Ryan Williams also had a good day, six-for-six with a TD. It's a competitive deal right now. We'll try to figure out in the next five to eight days who the starter is and will let you know as soon as we know.

Q: Is Ryan Williams eligible?

Golden: I don't have anything (new). As soon as I know you'll know.

Q: What's your take on how the first Family Day went out here with commitments and other top recruits coming on campus for the day?

Golden: It's just us. When you have a scrimmage and your coaches are coaching and preparing and meeting and all that, a lot of coaches in this business don't want to do that because it just exposes you for who you are, period. And to me that was the greatest thing about it - it was just who we are, from the bunch that we had (talk to recruits) ? and President Shalala talked and our deans and professors made sure kids knew from an academic standpoint what we're all about. They came over here, did a panel with some of the injured players - Seantrel (Henderson), (John) Calhoun and those guys, about five or six guys. They came out here and watched the scrimmage. That's pulling the covers back and saying, `This is who we are.' They loved it. That's what I'm excited about. I can't speak for what happened here before, but right now we have 24 commits and not one of them have taken an official visit, not one of them have been on campus. So whatever this guy was doing prior to that, we're doing it the right way and it's working. We're committed to these young people and I know they're committed to us. We got another big commitment - I can't comment on names. Clearly we're moving in the right direction.

(Our commitments are) aligned with our core values, what we want to get done, the types of principle and culture we'll have here. They're obviously congruent with our coaching staff and the direction of our football program.

[bulldozier1]

If Miami get the death penalty. Then there could be a new Big three. Lol! This could really help boost our recruiting. Then we really have no need to continue the series anyway.