2011 University of Miami athletics scandal

In 2011, the University of Miami Hurricanes football and men's basketball programs were investigated for NCAA rules violations alleged to have taken place from 2002 to 2010, centering around improper benefits given by booster Nevin Shapiro, and reported by investigative reporters at Yahoo! Sports.

Past scandals

The Miami Hurricanes, particularly the football team, have experienced a number of past scandals. In 1994, The Miami Herald reported that 2 Live Crew member Luther Campbell and several NFL players had offered a "pay-for-play" system from 1986 through 1992, giving cash rewards for acts such as scoring touchdowns and big hits.^[1] This allegation was verified in the subsequent NCAA investigation, which also found that the "head football coach and the associate director of athletics for compliance and internal operations were aware" of the payments.^[2]

Also in 1994, former University of Miami academic advisor Tony Russell pled guilty to helping 57 football players and more than 23 other scholarship athletes in falsifying applications for Pell Grants. From 1989 to 1992, Russell helped players receive more than $220,000 of grants, which federal officials later called "perhaps the largest centralized fraud ... ever committed" against the Pell Grant program.^[3] As a result of the scandal, Alexander Wolff wrote a Sports Illustrated cover story suggesting Miami should temporarily shutter the football program and that athletic director Paul Dee should be fired.^[3]

In 1995, the NCAA announced that the University of Miami had also provided or allowed "more than $412,000 of excessive aid" to student-athletes between 1990 and 1994, failed to implement its drug testing program, and lost institutional control over the football program.^[2] That December the NCAA announced that Miami's multiple infractions would result in severe sanctions, including a one-year ban from postseason play and a 31-scholarship reduction from 1996 to 1999. In addition to the football team, the violations also involved Miami's baseball, men's tennis, and women's golf teams.^[2]

Nevin Shapiro

Main article: Nevin Shapiro

Born in Brooklyn in 1969, Shapiro's family moved to south Florida when he was young, and he graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School.^[4] Some time between 1999 and 2003, under the cover of a grocery business called Capitol Investments USA, Shapiro operated a $930 million Ponzi scheme, which eventually collapsed in November 2009.^[5] In April 21, 2010 he was charged in New Jersey with securities fraud and money laundering, and he pled guilty to one count of each on September 15, 2010. On June 7, 2011, he was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison and ordered to make $82,657,362.29 in restitution.^[6]

In 2002 he paid $1.5 million for 30 percent in a sports management company called Axcess Sports, which had been started by Michael Huyghue. The agency signed several Hurricanes including Vince Wilfork.^[5]

Shapiro was a major booster of the Miami Hurricanes athletic programs, and reportedly spent $2 million from 2002 to 2010 in support primarily of the football team, and also of the men's basketball team. In August 2010 Shapiro told The Miami Herald that he was writing a book The Real U: 2001 to 2010. Inside the Eye of the Hurricane in which he promised to tell how Miami had violated NCAA rules affecting more than 100 players. "Once the players turned pro, they turned their back on me. It made me feel like a used friend," he said.^[5] On August 16, 2011, Yahoo! Sports writer Charles Robinson published an article based on 100 hours of jailhouse interviews with Shapiro, detailing Shapiro's allegations regarding his illegal and unethical behaviors and the lack of oversight in the University of Miami athletics department.^[4][7]

Allegations

Miami booster Nevin Shapiro, convicted of securities fraud and money laundering from a Ponzi scheme in 2010, used investor funds to finance donations to the University of Miami's athletic program, and gave an estimated $2 million in prohibited benefits to at least 72 current or former football/basketball players and coaches from 2002 to 2010. The report alleges that Shapiro, through his donations, violated at least four major NCAA bylaws:

• Bylaw 11, involving impermissible compensation to coaches;
• Bylaw 12, involving amateurism of athletes;
• Bylaw 13, involving improper recruiting activity; and
• Bylaw 16, involving extra benefits to athletes.^[4]

Shapiro saw his involvement as a direct continuation of Luther Campbell's activities. In an interview with Yahoo! Sports, he explained:

Here’s the thing: Luther Campbell was the first uncle who took care of players before I got going. His role was diminished by the NCAA and the school, and someone needed to pick up that mantle. That someone was me. He was ‘Uncle Luke,’ and I became ‘Little Luke.’^[4]

NCAA sanctions on players

On August 25, media reports indicated that Miami had declared as many as 13 current football players ineligible, including projected starting quarterback Jacory Harris, as a result of the investigation. The school then petitioned the NCAA for reinstatement of at least some of the players involved. The following day, head coach Al Golden confirmed these reports, though not naming any players or indicating the number of reinstatements sought. Under NCAA rules, these players were still allowed to practice until the NCAA notified Miami about its decisions. Depending on the scale of each player's violations, penalties may include sanctions that do not require missing games, suspension for a fixed number of games, or permanent ineligibility. The school began the process in hopes that the NCAA would make its decisions on all players before the Hurricanes' season opener at Maryland on September 5.^[8]

On August 30, the NCAA announced the results of Miami's petition. It cleared one of the named players, Marcus Robinson, but found that the other 12 had received impermissible benefits. All of these players were required to make restitution before being reinstated. Four who were found to have received less than $100 were not suspended, and would be eligible to play once certified as having made restitution. The three who drew the longest suspensions accepted gifts from Shapiro during their recruitment, and had received the greatest amount of improper benefits among the group.^[9]

• Brandon McGee, JoJo Nicholas, Micanor Regis, Vaughn Telemaque — No suspension
• Travis Benjamin, Marcus Forston, Jacory Harris, Adewale Ojomo, Sean Spence — Suspended 1 game
• Ray-Ray Armstrong, Dyron Dye — Suspended 4 games
• Olivier Vernon — Suspended 6 games

Reaction

“	If they're found to be true, it appears we've had a third-party individual have a really pernicious impact on a huge cross-section of student-athletes. The breadth of that would be pretty shocking.	”
—NCAA president Mark Emmert, [10]

Due to the nature of the allegations and the prominence of the Miami Hurricanes football team, as well as the history of scandals surrounding the program, reactions to the expose were rapid. Paul Dee, whose term as University of Miami athletic director from 1993 through 2008 encompassed both the current scandal and the violations uncovered in 1995, came in for heavy criticism. Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel summed up Dee's involvement as follows:

Dee, you may recall, was the Committee on Infractions chairman for USC's much-publicized case last summer involving former stars Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo. It was Dee who, in announcing some of the stiffest penalties of the last 20 years (a two-year bowl ban and 30 docked scholarships), closed with the preachy reminder that "high-profile athletes demand high-profile compliance". Dee, Miami's AD during most of the period covering Shapiro's allegations, is retired and no longer under NCAA jurisdiction. Still, it seems only fair he should spend a day at USC's Heritage Hall wearing a sandwich board with the word "Hypocrite."^[11]

According to NCAA President Mark Emmert, the NCAA began investigating the situation "four or five months" prior to the publication of Robinson's article, and NCAA investigators had conducted multiple interviews with Shapiro.^[10]

Many sportswriters, including Charles Robinson and Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports, have speculated that if the allegations are found to be true, the Hurricanes may face the "NCAA death penalty", which was last given to a major program in 1987 when the SMU Mustangs had their football season cancelled. According to the NCAA, "A school is a repeat violator if a second major violation occurs within five years of the start date of the penalty from the first case. The cases do not have to be in the same sport."^[12] According to several sources at Miami, the NCAA has begun investigating for a "pattern of willful violations," which would allow it to investigate back to the date the earliest infractions occurred. The violations would overlap with the Hurricanes baseball team's two-year probation from 2003 to 2005, which would make the football and basketball teams eligible for the "death penalty."^[13] However, NCAA Vice President for Enforcement Julie Roe Lach has said discussion about using the death penalty has been limited.^[14]

Wolff, who had suggested in 1995 that the Miami football program should be shuttered, again called for Miami to temporarily drop football in an open letter to university president Donna Shalala published in the August 29, 2011 issue of Sports Illustrated. In the letter, Wolff noted that Dan Wetzel had described the Miami program as a "de facto professional team" run by Shapiro, but that no NFL owner, in contrast to Shapiro, would have "stocked hotel rooms and his own yacht with prostitutes and strippers for players' pleasure and sprung for an abortion when one of the women got pregnant."^[15]

On November 20, Miami announced that it was withdrawing from bowl consideration for the 2011 season due to the ongoing NCAA probe.^[16]

References

1. ^ "Cash Bounties Reported at Miami", The New York Times, 1994-05-24, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9802E0D91038F932A15756C0A962958260, retrieved 2011-08-23 
2. ^ ^{a b c} PHRASE WILL NOT BE REPEATED University of Miami Public Infractions Report, NCAA, 1995-12-01, https://web1.ncaa.org/LSDBi/exec/miSearch?miSearchSubmit=publicReport&key=63&publicTerms=THIS PHRASE WILL NOT BE REPEATED, retrieved 2011-08-23 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Why the University of Miami should drop football", Sports Illustrated, 1995-06-12, http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1006688/index.htm, retrieved 2011-08-23 
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Robinson, Charles (2011-08-16), Renegade Miami football booster spells out illicit benefits to players, Yahoo! Sports, http://sports.yahoo.com/investigations/news?slug=cr-renegade_miami_booster_details_illicit_benefits_081611, retrieved 2011-08-24 
5. ^ ^{a b c} Elfrink, Tim (2010-12-16), "Nevin Shapiro: Miami's Caligula", Miami New Times, http://www.miaminewtimes.com/content/printVersion/2592914/, retrieved 2011-08-24 
6. ^ Voreacos, David (2011-06-08), Wholesale Grocery Owner Gets 20-Year Sentence in $930 Million Ponzi Scam, Bloomberg, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-07/nevin-shapiro-gets-20-years-in-880-million-ponzi-scheme.html, retrieved 2011-08-24 
7. ^ "Players got gifts from ex-Miami booster", ESPN, 2011-08-17, http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/6866006/ponzi-schemer-nevin-shapiro-says-provided-benefits-miami-athletes%27%20rel=%27nofollow, retrieved 2011-08-24 
8. ^ "Source: Up to 13 Miami players ineligible". ESPN.com. August 26, 2011. http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/6894959/thirteen-miami-hurricanes-players-ineligible-reinstated-ncaa-source-says. Retrieved August 26, 2011. 
9. ^ "Jacory Harris 1 of 8 Canes reprimanded". ESPN.com. August 30, 2011. http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/6909795/eight-miami-hurricanes-serve-suspenions-repayments. Retrieved August 30, 2011. 
10. ^ ^{a b} Scarbinsky, Kevin (2011-08-24), "Radio silence on Cam Newton and Auburn would be better than Mark Emmert's non-answers", Birmingham News, http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/08/post_261.html, retrieved 2011-08-24 
11. ^ Mandel, Stewart (2011-08-17), "Credibility of NCAA enforcement will be tested by Miami allegations.", Sports Illustrated, http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/stewart_mandel/08/16/miami.hurricanes.allegations.reaction/index.html#tyntHFL, retrieved 2011-08-23 
12. ^ Glossary of terms, NCAA, http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/NCAA/Issues/Enforcement/Rules+Enforcement+glossary+of+terms, retrieved 2011-08-29, "Death Penalty: The ‘death penalty’ is a phrase used by media to describe the most serious NCAA penalties possible. It is not a formal NCAA term. It applies only to repeat violators and can include eliminating the involved sport for at least one year, the elimination of athletics aid in that sport for two years and the school relinquishing its Association voting privileges for a four-year period. A school is a repeat violator if a second major violation occurs within five years of the start date of the penalty from the first case. The cases do not have to be in the same sport." 
13. ^ Robinson, Charles; Wetzel, Dan. Source: Willful violators clause could apply at Miami. Yahoo! Sports, 2011-08-18
14. ^ Thamel, Pete (2011-08-17), "Storm Over Miami", The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/sports/ncaafootball/storm-over-miami.html?_r=3&ref=sports&pagewanted=all, retrieved 2011-08-21, "But Julie Roe Lach, the N.C.A.A.’s vice president for enforcement, said in an interview Wednesday that there had been little discussion about reviving harsh penalties like television bans or the so-called death penalty, two punishments once used by the N.C.A.A. that have long been shelved." 
15. ^ Wolff, Alexander (August 29, 2011). "16 Years Later, It's Time To Get Real". Sports Illustrated. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1189725/index.htm. Retrieved August 25, 2011. 
16. ^ Miami won't play in a bowl game. ESPN, 2011-11-20.

Further reading

• Jackson, Barry; Degnan, Susan Miller (16 August 2011), "NCAA visiting University of Miami regarding allegations", Miami Herald, http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/16/2360166/shapiro-lawyer-ncaa-visiting-university.html, retrieved 17 August 2011