Eye Of The Hurricane

One of my favorite things that happens every time there is a college football scandal and which never fails to make me chuckle occurs when a coach or administrator of a program which was recently found to have committed major NCAA violations looks into the camera that ESPN just shoved in their face and says something along the following lines, "We're not really sure how this happened." Of course you know how it happened. You know damn well how it happened. It happened because some booster showed up with money that he or she was happy to give to the school and you didn't ask where the money came from, probably because you didn't want to hear the answer.

This exact scenario is currently taking place down at the University of Miami, who are no strangers to scandal. Back in the early 90s, "The U" had a reputation as a slightly shady program who were happy to bend the rules. Rather than run from it, the Hurricanes embraced it and carried themselves with a swagger that basically told the NCAA, "You think we're doing something wrong? Prove it." Well, eventually their antics were uncovered and sanctions handed down. But, things had been quiet down in South Beach ever since, so everyone assuming they had cleaned up their act. That was until Tuesday, when a report came out in which a booster admitted to giving money to roughly 75 players over a 10-year period while also providing them extra benefits like cars, bonuses for particularly vicious hits on rival players, time on a private yacht and parties full of escorts. (Clearly, I should have played ball at The U.)

The only reason this story is coming out now is because the booster, named Nevin Shapiro, is currently serving 20 years after being arrested for running a large Ponzi scheme and he feels like all these players he supported while they were in college have abandoned him. Apparently the only thing more dangerous than a scorned woman is a scorned booster. (Guess he never learned the lesson that money doesn't buy you friends or loyalty.) Since the story broke all the administrators at Miami have been desperately attempting to distance themselves from this guy while trying to downplay his involvement with University, despite there being video evidence showing him presenting the University President with a check for $50,000 (she should start updating her resume) and the rather damning fact that he had given the program so much money that they named the players lounge after him.

Obviously, the previous coaches (who had already all been fired) and administrators are in trouble. The big thing I take exception with are the people who claim that the players take no blame in this. I saw multiple analysts on TV yesterday say that they are just kids who come from tough backgrounds and can't be blamed for wanting to take care of their families. That would be a lot easier to stomach if it were true. But, much like the players at Ohio State who traded their memorabilia for free tattoos, these players weren't asking for money to send home to mom. They were looking for free cars. Can't exactly claim your family is starving when you're driving around a new luxury SUV every semester. Also, they can hardly claim ignorance of the rules. I know that there are a lot of hazy NCAA standards of what does and does not constitute an extra benefit, but this isn't like catching a ride across campus from the SID. Even the most naive kid should be able to assume that being given the keys to a private yacht full of prostitutes is not allowed.

Miami is going to get hit hard on this and, frankly, they should. They are repeat offenders. They are not, however, going to get hit with the program-cancelling "Death Penalty" like people were speculating. The NCAA pretty much admitted they never plan to use that again after seeing how it forever wounded the SMU program. (At least not on a team or a school as high-profile as the Hurricane athletic program is. They'll cancel the season of some random a D-3 tennis team in the blink of an eye.) Miami will get nothing more than the loss of some scholarships and being banned from the postseason for a couple of years. You'll note no one will be calling for tougher penalties because the last thing any University with a major college athletic program wants to do is appear high and mighty, because that is when people turn the spotlight on them and since I assume every program is dirty to some degree it is better to remain in the shadows.

The only people I feel slightly bad for are the new basketball and football coaches at Miami. They both had good jobs which they left thinking they were inheriting programs they could build and now are going to be so buried under NCAA sanctions that by the times the programs are finally ready to compete again they will most likely be long-since fired. But, given Miami's history I guess they should have had an idea this was a possibility. The phrase heard several times over the last couple of days is that Miami is, "A sunny place for shady people." Something tells me it is going to be a long-time before the sun shines on the Hurricanes again.