NCAA fires chief enforcement officer

Submitted by Business Time on

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--ncaa-firing-vp-of-enforcement-17155…

The NCAA fires its chief enforcement officer, citing a botched handling of the ongoing Miami investigations. Apparently they decided it would be a good idea to PAY Nevin Shapiro's lawyer for some depositions. Now they have to throw out up to 20% of their evidence against Miami since it is tainted.

When it comes to the NCAA, I am strongly reminded of Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Mmmm Hmmm

February 18th, 2013 at 6:25 PM ^

I love bashing the NCAA's bumbling as much as the next guy, and this was obviously a very bad idea.  However, without condoning this particular action, I can see how if the enforcement office had people who actually cared, they would go to non-traditional sources of information.  From media accounts I have read, Michigan opening its doors and welcoming in the NCAA to investigate is the exception and not the rule.  On the contrary, these schemes are sufficiently sophisticated that SI can send one of its best reporters to Columbus to stir the pot and only comes out with a sorta story about tattoos and even Yahoo! reporters recently said that they have reports of many many stories they cannot run because they cannot corroborate.  If even reporters cannot run much with the option of running with anonymous sources, the NCAA compliance office certainly has an uphill battle to keep its legitimacy and nail all but the dumbest or most arrogant offenders.

LSAClassOf2000

February 18th, 2013 at 7:25 PM ^

"The findings released Monday state that the enforcement department: went against NCAA legal advice in paying Perez for depositions she shared with the association; violated internal NCAA policy; failed to consider the NCAA membership's understanding of the limitation of its enforcement powers; and failed to sufficiently oversee Perez's actions on the association's behalf."

It might just be me, but the fact that the department went against the advice of their own lawyers and paid Perez is something that I find particularly intriguing. They seemed to be so invested in making a slam dunk with the Miami investigation that the rules and limitations of their own bylaws were of no importance, and that's the real pity - how can any institution take seriously the charges leveled by an association that can't reliably enforce its own rules on itself? 

Yeoman

February 19th, 2013 at 11:33 AM ^

that which is adequately explained by enlightened self-interest.

NCAA enforcement is designed to fail. Effective enforcement would damage the universities that make up the institution, lax penalties are an embarrassment. It's best if little is discovered in the first place.