A bad situation at the University of Miami just got a whole heck of a lot worse.
By now you know about what the last few days have brought the school. On Tuesday, Yahoo Sports dropped a nuclear bomb on the sports world, detailing the eight year free reign super-booster Nevin Shapiro had over the program. From 2002-2010, Yahoo alleges that Shapiro showered extra benefits ranging from cash, clothes, cars, prostitutes, jewelry and more on upwards of 73 University of Miami athletes, almost exclusively members of the football team. A handful of coaches from both the football and basketball programs were also said to have been knowledgeable of Shapiro’s brazen rule breaking.
Well this evening, Yahoo was at it again, reporting that the NCAA has told University of Miami administrators that they are considering using a “Willful Termination Clause,” on the university in the midst of their investigation. Under normal circumstances, there is a four year moratorium on rules violations that a school can be punished for. But under the Willful Termination Clause, the school can be hit for violations dating back to the beginning of the infractions.
For example, if Miami received a letter of inquiry for a case on Sept. 1, 2011, the NCAA could only sanction the school for applicable violations dating back to Sept. 1, 2007. But the clause – reserved for “a pattern of willful violations” – can spin a probe back to the earliest applicable infractions.
Considering that Shapiro claims to have supplied extra benefits to players since early in 2002, this could be a crippling decision for the University of Miami. Under a worst case scenario, if the NCAA finds infractions to have occurred since 2002, and in conjunction with Miami’s baseball program having been on probation from 2003-2005, it could result in the dreaded “Death Penalty,” or cancellation of an entire football season.
Understand this caveat, because it’s a big one.
Under normal rules, Miami might not necessarily be eligible for the Death Penalty. When the Death Penalty was originally put into place in the mid-1980’s, it was better known as the “repeat violators rule.” A school could only be eligible, if they’d been on probation within a five year period of whenever the most recent infractions occured. That’s why SMU was hit with the penalty back in the 1980’s; they were caught violating NCAA rules just a year after being placed on probation for the same offense. And while it isn’t a total apples-to-apples comparison, all the statutes are in place where Miami could receive the Death Penalty if the NCAA deems it appropriate.
What will be interesting is to see if the NCAA actually goes through with it. The penalty all but crippled SMU, a national power in the 1980’s, which won or shared the Southwest Conference title in 1981, 1982 and 1984. The Mustangs have made just two bowl games since, each coming in the last two years. The penalty was also one of the final nails in the Southwest Conference breaking up in 1994.
But it is a weapon that NCAA President Mark Emmert and his staff have, and he may be willing to use it.
As he told USA Today:
“We need to make sure that we’ve got, for the committee on infractions, all the tools they need to create those kinds of deterrents,” Emmert said. “If that includes the death penalty, I’m fine with that.”
For Miami, every day only brings bigger headaches.
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