FreddieMercuryHayes

August 16th, 2011 at 11:05 PM ^

On the 247sports board, the Auburn fans are talking about all the recruits they're gonna get who were considering Miami (Diggs was included).  Do they really no realize that they are very close to getting hammered and their NC vacated as well?  I get a good chuckle out of stupid people.

Joined: 12/29/2010

MGoPoints: 40860

kman23

August 17th, 2011 at 12:28 AM ^

How can the NCAA charge universites with failure to monitor when they themselves do the very same thing? This article proves a decades worth of continued cheating from a top 25 (in previous years) team that has already once had a sugar daddy paying for a pro-college team. If there was one single team the NCAA should have been moitoriing it was Miami!

OSU, USC, Boise St., UNC, and Oregon have all had scnadals that were more or less squashed. Amazingly, it seems (and I'm sure it's because they're really clean) that no SEC schools cheat. When is the NCAA going to admit that it has a problem and start actually proactively trying to fix the system. Big teams earn big money. To stay good (or get better) these teams often cheat. By not actively fixing the system the NCAA is basically okay with teams cheating as long as they bring in money and don't get caught. And even when they do get caught as long as you superficially fix the problem (fire a coach- whether it be a head coach or position coach) the NCAA will back off. What else can anyone take from their message? 

The NCAA is supposed to be an oversight committee but they have a stake in not investigating. In addition, they trust colleges who also have millions at state (and the jobs of the univeristy president, athletic director, and the coaching staff) to self-report which is akin to trusting oil companies to report enviornmental violations. Only the small stuff which doesn't threaten the university will ever get reported, leaving the bad stuff, the stuff which needs to end, hidden below the surface. As long as it doesn't boil over into the mainstream it's allowed to continue festering. The NCAA should go out and hire a former AG to run an investigatory unit. They should be able to suspend scholarships if teams don't cooperate (no more advantage to teams that turn down the NCAA). Also, they should have a connection with the IRS since all this money given to athletes and the universities is taxable and I'm sure none of it has ever been reported. Why shouldn't these athletes who've made it (Rolle, Wilfork, Beason, etc.) have to pay back taxes and fines on the money and gifts they recieve? Everybody else in this country has too. Now they have millions and can no longer claim that they're poor and need the money for food (which I think is a valid justification for paying college athletes but not strippers). Basically the NCAA needs to decide whether it's just a protection racket like it currently is (protecting colleges by giving them a monopoly on football talent age 18-21) or if it really gives a damn about amateur sports. I really do believe that if the NCAA continues down the current path they could open up a door for the courts to rule that not allowing athletes to declare for the draft before their 3rd season out of HS is illegal. In the Maurice Clarett case the courts defended the current system partly becuase the NCAA itself wasn't benefitting from the system (it wasn't recieving the players' wages) and it looked out for college athletes and bettered them, but with scandal after scandal a good lawyer could prove the NCAA is out for itself and the current system guarantees them profits at the cost of the athletes.

Joined: 08/03/2009

MGoPoints: 152

ish

August 16th, 2011 at 6:40 PM ^

i guess golden won't be poaching players anymore.  feel bad for him.  he had no idea what he was getting into.  this is more of a test for the ncaa than osu.  if miami isn't dismantled, every program will run loose.  why wouldn't they?

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 17404

CRex

August 16th, 2011 at 6:52 PM ^

Talk about a poor return for that guy's investment as well.  If you're going to blow seven figures on "recruitment" you might as well double down and go for the decade long reign of terror prior to the hammer getting dropped.  

Actually it would kind of be funny if some smaller school just doubled down on everything and went caught just admitted "Well you know we figured we'd never become nationally revelant due to fact we're a minor program.  So we figured what the hell, let's go big for a decade and live it up."  

Also if the bounties for injury is proven, this program needs to get the dead penalty.  

Joined: 09/28/2009

MGoPoints: 9010

CRex

August 16th, 2011 at 7:12 PM ^

Yeah, that is why Miami needs the death penalty.  They were a small private school that got big because a rapper funded them illegaly.  All they did was shift to getting a white collar criminal to fund them.  The program has no roots or foundation as any kind of tool to help student athletes advance.  It's all about paying players.  Kill it and nothing of value is lost.  

 

Edit.  Also unrelated but:

 

Abortion: In one instance, Shapiro described taking a player to the Pink Pony strip club and paying for a dancer to engage in sex with the athlete. In the ensuing weeks, Shapiro said the dancer called one of his security providers and informed him that the player had gotten her pregnant during the incident. Shapiro said he gave the dancer $500 to have an abortion performed, without notifying the player of the incident.

“I was doing him a favor,” the booster said. “That idiot might have wanted to keep [the baby].”

Wow.  Just wow.  

Joined: 09/28/2009

MGoPoints: 9010

CRex

August 16th, 2011 at 7:26 PM ^

There was also a week or so last year when Randy Shannon was mentioned as possible DC replacement.  Imagine if that had come to pass.  We'd be franatically ejecting our DC a few weeks before the season started...urgh.  

Joined: 09/28/2009

MGoPoints: 9010

DenverRob

August 16th, 2011 at 7:19 PM ^

I can't wait for people who won't read this story and say, "this happens at every school, you can't control it."

The stroy has LOIC all over it. Money, abortion, favors, and everything else.

This is not something you tolerate in CFB. I expect the harshest penalties in my lifeime. If that is the DP so be it. Miami only has 3 dozen fans and apprently a whole lot of groupies anyway.

Joined: 08/05/2010

MGoPoints: 2339

smwilliams

August 16th, 2011 at 7:20 PM ^

This is pretty serious stuff, but let us again call upon the lessons of the SMU program in the 80s where the school itself contributed to a slush fund that paid players, got caught, said they stopped, but then kept doing it anyways.

I expect they'll get life in prison, but the death penalty is incredibly harsh.

*On an aside, I'm wondering if FSU, Clemson, VTech are saying "Man, the SEC looks good right about now."

Joined: 08/20/2010

MGoPoints: 9917

bluebyyou

August 16th, 2011 at 7:31 PM ^

If true, and it appears there is a lot of information to suggest Miami is in deep crap, this is really a sad day for college football.  Everyone of these episodes, USC, Ohio, NC, etc. cast shadows that degrade the way the game is perceived.  

Joined: 09/07/2009

MGoPoints: 18562

South Bend Wolverine

August 16th, 2011 at 8:31 PM ^

Agreed.  The NCAA brought the hurt on USC in a serious way (especially because it was a multi-sport issue there, which it is here as well).  They might yet do so to OSU - that remains to be seen.  If they do the right thing with OSU & with the even more obvious case of Miami, then they will have the opportunity to create the image of cleaning house, sweeping out the corruption, etc. etc.

If, OTOH, they prefer to let things slide, then we'll see real damage done to the image of college football.

Joined: 09/11/2009

MGoPoints: 7918

Solar Bob

August 16th, 2011 at 7:35 PM ^

Bounties, cash handshakes, boosters, yacts, stripper, prostitutes, agents, coaches.  The only major violation they didn't commit was extra stretching time

Joined: 06/08/2011

MGoPoints: 85

FreddieMercuryHayes

August 16th, 2011 at 7:36 PM ^

The worst part is that this means more talent for the other Florida schools and the SEC. Why can't this happen to a school in our recruiting footprint? And no, OSU doesn't count. This makes their's look rather mild.

Joined: 12/29/2010

MGoPoints: 40860