What a Mess: UM, Booster and "Same old same old" will touch EVERYONE

[DRU2012]

Well, the sh*t has finally, really hit the fan in that Miami-booster-and-his-Ponzi-scheme Case--and by its very nature, TEN YEARS of complete, over-the-top "lack-of-control-and-over-sight" once again at UM will sink that institution's football and basketball programs--only this time virtually every halfway-important recruit in the state during that period crossed the path of this aggressively "generous" booster (you gotta read the Yahoo Investigation story that broke today--yikes!), and it's poisonous tentacles will touch (and, to varying degrees, taint) every school that now has coaches who worked for UM and/or players who "took visits" (official or otherwise) there. Two of our players, not surprisingly big-time talents who Miami naturally went after and who are just now finally healthy and ready to break out for us, Andre Debose and Matt Patchan, have been named in records as being among the dozens (and DOZENS) of then-potential-recruits who came through, were "entertained" and possibly included in activities that would be considered "NCAA violations".
Fortunately, compared to a lot of the other evidence and long lists of specific, supposedly documented allegations (mostly pertaining to players at UM, once they were there), and the more vague and second-hand nature of the allegations (more along lines of "expensive meals and late-night entertainment" as part of a "large group of young recruits"), it is likely they won't face much in the way of attention or repercussions from the NCAA. The most that may be required of some few of the many young men who visited once or twice but committed elsewhere may be to give an honest recounting of what they recall of the visit, and that, at most, in their cases would be the end of it.
The same may not be true for the one UF coach who is named, Aubrey Hill, a talented and popular young coach who just moved over here from UM. Practically EVERYONE on the UM staff, assistant coaches right on up through the Head Coach , AD and beyond are implicated with "at least knowing and looking the other way", so blatant was the whole pervasive "process"--assistant coaches more directly involved, of course, but there's "splash-back" onto the shoes and slacks of even the President and Chancellor of the University.
(Read the article posted late this afternoon--08/16/11--on the Orlando Sun-Sentinel-site for a quick overview and specific details pertaining to the UF players, BUT for the complete story, in all its tawdry, in-depth detail, go right to the source-material: yahoo.com, right up top among its featured stories-of-the-day--you can't miss it: Don't wait for the truncated ESPN version--the complete, original Yahoo-investigation-story is too juicy; it has it ALL. You may not like it, but you won't be able to stop reading it either...)

 

[Escambia94]

In order to be safe, I would suspend Aubrey Hill and put Matt Patchan and Andre Debose on notice. The NCAA will drop the hammer hard on any of its non-favorites. I do not know if Florida is on the cool list like USC and Auburn, and I don't want to chance it. Give Aubrey a chance to make an official statement before suspending him of course. He is an adult and one of the main recruiters for scUM in that time period. Patchan and Debose can make statements, apologize, and plead ignorance as high school kids being wooed by Da U. It's a long article. Prostitution, paying players to try knocking out Gators and Seminoles (Tebow and Rix), sex on the boat, parties on the yacht, free lavish meals, etc. All of this is so bad that I bet mean ol' NCAA slaps them on the wrist...that will stop 'em.

 

[Leakfan12]

Give them the Death Penalty please NCAA. This is like their second Pay to Play incident (first one involved Luther Campbell). Then Florida would only worry about FSU and USF.

 

[DRU2012]

Yeah, man, this has all KINDS of angles--and not just in the activities at scUM themselves. As you say, there is the NCAA's own hypocrisy in general, and inconsistency specifically in the area of enforcement and punishment. Is Auburn ever going to be held to account? What about the Buckeyes, their "fluid morals" and just-as-flexible "Self-Punishment, After-the-fact multiple-choice"-style? Oregon, UNC and all the others? Yet all of them pale before this breath-taking "Hurricane" of explicit information: there're so many sides to this one, all of them likely to draw their example-making ire.
At the same time, there are so MANY people at so many levels of involvement and relative "guilt" in this thing that even a "thorough NCAA investigation" will ultimately require a practical, "measured" response that focuses mostly on the program itself and the people who were there that had "institutional oversight"--or a lack thereof, as it turns out. When you read of players who were handed cars, jewelry, big screen TVs, prostitutes and piles of cash in the presence of coaches or by the coaches themselves, and it's clear everyone knows about it (and that bit about the "bounties and rewards" for "hits and take-outs" is the lowest--I hated them for it when we heard about it back in the 80's and that rapper put up the cash, and this coming up again means that every coach on those teams must be examined) right up the line through the athletic department and on up to the University President, well, some folks are going down with THIS sinking ship, and it can't just be "the nobodies in steerage". I can't see them going after "the ones that got away" unless it's just to get them to say what they saw, heard or were offered while they were visiting in order to further substantiate the charges, originating so far from one man's records and testimony.
In the meantime, you're right about UF taking the "safe road"--but I believe that amounts to shielding the two players from the brunt of the media-attention, meanwhile sitting them down with our attorney and "NCAA Enforcement-guy", finding out what if anything they actually saw, heard or think they "know", and settling on their respective "statements" and NCAA-testimony should the time come that either are required (more likely the former than the latter). Though it pays for us to be careful, thorough and ready, I truly believe that will be the worst of it for our guys. The Miami-program itself will have to be the over-arching villain here, the case against it in the guise of specific coaches, players and members of the University hierarchy being plenty big and unwieldy enough without going after every highschool kid who was talented enough to rate their attention but ended up going elsewhere. Much as the NCAA might prefer a scapegoat or two they could lay all or at least most of the blame on, they don't have that luxury this time...only the various defendants will have that option--in the person of Nevin Shapiro, "booster-extraordinaire".
Unfortunately, it's a completely different story for Aubrey Hill (I say "unfortunately" because he is by all accounts a good young coach, well-liked and respected by the players, etc., and you hate to lose one anytime--but if he was aware of the "bounty"-thing, as may be the case, well, its hard to whitewash that one, at least in my mind). UF will rightly stand behind him on the "guilty until proven innocent"-premise, but I'm pretty sure it'll go down just as you say, at some point (and likely sooner rather than later) he will issue a statement, perhaps even "going on voluntary leave-of-absence for the good of the team", in a sense suspending himself in advance of necessitating the University to do it. May very well end up being a case of "Goodbye Aubrey, we hardly knew ye".

 

[Leakfan12]

The clip from the U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8TDMcgq0o4

And the article

http://sports.yahoo.com/investigati...miami_booster_details_illicit_benefits_081611

 

[DRU2012]

The clip from the U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8TDMcgq0o4

And the article

http://sports.yahoo.com/investigati...miami_booster_details_illicit_benefits_081611

Yep, those are the ones...ya gotta read that yahoo.com article--that's where everything else is starting from, at this point.
Now, that YouTube clip is from a late-'09 ESPN "30 for 30" show focusing on UM's "bad old days"...the main thing to note here is that to some extent "only the names have changed", only there's more money, more charges, more players and coaches mentioned by name...the other thing to check out are the comments, presumably from 'Cane students and fans. These are so twisted that you begin to realize that there is a dark culture of corruption surrounding and pervading not just the football program but the University's whole "extended community". Clearly they deserve each other, the program and its supporters locked into some kind of sick, amoral and self-destructive death-embrace I don't even want to contemplate any longer.

 

[Escambia94]

The funny thing is that nobody is really surprised that Miami is cheating. I think we as Florida fans are surprised they were caught. I'd be more surprised if anyone did anything to Miami. UF and FSU are going to get hurt worse! How are we supposed to compete against this: "Come play football in beautiful Coral Gables! We give cash bonuses, yacht club privileges, door prizes, headhunting bonuses, and sex orgies!"? I tell you what, if I were an 18-year old football player I would go to Da U as the 3rd string kicker for these benefits!

 

[DRU2012]

Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of here, that us and the 'Noles will be the worst hit as the shockwave spreads from Ground Zero. There are cries today for "The Death Penalty", that "the NCAA must act quickly and decisively if they want to be taken seriously" etc, etc. blah blah blah but we know better--that's a song we've heard before, ad nauseum. Hell, they SHOULD have done a LOT of things, including come down MUCH harder on the 'Canes the last time many of these charges came up. Instead, like you said, the whole thing became a nudge nudge wink wink JOKE, and a long-running advertisement for a certain type of easily-bedazzled young man to "cum to da U, Bra'". I always figured I had as good a time at UF as an undergrad as ANY football player, with much less physical exertion and much more time on my hands to party, but who can compete with THIS? Still, even with all that, HOW MANY CHAMPIONSHIPS DID THEY WIN during this stretch? Maybe there's a flaw in the whole equation, no? Maybe you reap what you sew after all--and it ISN'T BCS titles, but rather spoiled, selfish individuals who know nothing of sacrifice and teamwork, only to grab as much as they can for themselves, then move on. The ones who DON'T make it in The League end up as criminals and losers--and NONE of 'em were there for a Degree.

 

[Leakfan12]

At least SMU would have appearences in two BCS Bowls if the BCS was around then because the old Southwestern Conference would be consider a BCS conference. Well they did win three SWC conference titles (1981, 1982, and 1984) but wasn't eligible for a bowl in the 1981 season due to violations (and Florida was stripped of it's 1984 SEC title F--K THE NCAA). Also widens there probe to the U

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/6873380/ncaa-told-miami-look-four-years

Honestly I can't blame the players because let's be honest most of us would accept these gifts (I would). I remember what Mitch Albom said on a Doc by the 30 for 30 crew The Fab Five that most kids aren't thinking about future violations, they thinking about eating today.

 

[DRU2012]

I've thought about this very idea a lot over the last few days, tried to keep my general grudge against scUM over to the side, at least...and finally decided in fact that the very things that came to make me despise the place, the whole "vibe" surrounding it--embodied not just in the players' swaggering on- and off-field obnoxiousness but in their fans' attitude and behavior--and no apparent effort at oversight, none to rein either of them in on the part of a near invisible upper-administration (which in turn led directly as far back as the early 80's to our UF Regents dropping the traditional annual home-and-home series we'd been playing with them for some time--this has been going on a LONG time), in fact amounted to the exact kind of "culture of violence and corruption" throughout the program that led inevitably to this kind of situation becoming "normal and acceptable". Hell, it never really stopped in all that time, just went more "low key" whenever the publicity shined a spotlight on 'em, then "blew back up" the moment it was gone. They can blame Nevil Shapiro all they want (and they ARE today--never mind that this wasn't some "outsider", some "rogue agent", this was THEIR GUY, with a student lounge on campus named after him and every top Coach and University Official right up to the President rushing to proudly get their picture's taken with him--they HAD to have done some serious and determined "I'm not looking over there" NOT to have known SOMETHING was rotten, I guess they were so USED to doing so) but now IT'S ON THEM.
Having said all of that, one simple answer keeps coming back to me about the point you raise about the players, and that's this: NOT EVERYONE FALLS FOR THE FOOL'S GOLD. That is, for example, WE got a LOT of great players out of Fla. during that period who came from the same places, schools, neighborhoods and situations--young guys who got the same treatment on the recruiting trail, including having "all that" dangled in front of them and whispers in their ear, "Hey, lil' bro, all this and more..." How COME scUM didn't get ALL of 'em? The answer is straight forward: There is a character issue here as well. In other words, IT WAS ON THE PLAYERS , too, in the choices they made--including the big one right from the start, which school to commit to. This may also go a long way towards explaining a more complicated question as well, the one of why with this over-the-top "recruiting advantage" they weren't more successful ON-THE-FIELD during this same period. That's actually a more interesting question, one that bares some examination, but not here, not now. For the moment there's just this: for all the talk from all the haters, as much as it's possible to do so it appears we were "doing it right" this last 20 years or so at LEAST. In a weird way, maybe MIAMI was like a "filter", a test that "the good ones" passed through and made it to us. I'm sorry that young men more easily dazzled, impressed and/or led astray succumbed to the "flash", but none seemed to mind what they'd "gotten themselves into" once they got there; some got rich at the end, just as promised, the rest are left holding sand...that's life, right there--you learn and go on. We got championships, and the right to be Proud Gators--and that "WE" emphatically includes and is embodied IN everyone who gets to wear that orange helmut.

 

[Escambia94]

Part of our problem is that nobody in power in the NCAA Department of Hypocritical Rule Enforcement has ties to UF. Many have ties to Miami (smart move), so UF cannot afford to have even one player take a quarter from someone to get bubble gum balls out of a machine. One player does that, and next thing you know they are stripping us of two national titles. Give a high school recruit a UF pen and we lose 84 scholarships. Maybe my idea of temporarily suspending Aubrey Hill was excessive, but UF needs to show it cares to the NCAA Department of Hypocritical Enforcement to avoid that aura of "lack of institutional control ". You see, even when Aubrey Hill was at Miami, Florida was supposed to know he was a crook (it is Miami), yet we hired him anyway (forget the part about him being an alumnus).

 

[DRU2012]

Can't argue, man--"special interests" all over the place. I'm no USC apologist or sympathizer (lol--get me going on THAT tale some time!), but how P.O.'ed are the Prophilactics today, finding out that the NCAA spokesman and point man for the charges and eventual sanctions against them, the very guy who publicly eviscerated them in a finger-wagging, contempt-filled lecture in front of the world as he announced those sanctions on the behalf of the NCAA Infractions Committee and "all of College Football", turns out to be the same guy that headed up the whole athletic program at scUM? This guy was engaged in enabling and studiously ignoring all the blatant signs and activities of one of the most extreme and extended episodes of "lack of institutional control" that anyone has seen or heard of since Barry Switzer came out with his bestseller. One more example of the hollow self-righteousness and boundless hypocrisy of the system and the folks who run it.

 

[Leakfan12]

I think UM president is canned soon because of this

http://fastcache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/11/2011/08/1313229436-1.jpg

Not good. Also I'm apologize to UGA for called it Ponzi U. Now it's The U is Ponzi U. NCAA needs to give the U or someone the Death Penalty because it's like the dozen football program in hot water (I lost count and that's sad). Also what happened with the Maurkice Pouncey issue about two years ago? Won't be surprise if Sharpio's story ends up on American Greed.

Another interesting article.

http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/story/_/id/6873277/anyone-everyone-sucked-miami-latest-storm

 

[Escambia94]

What may happen here is that the NCAA will save face by announcing major changes, considering many of its star programs are getting caught lately--USC, Ohio State, Miami. Miami will not get the death penalty. If anything, they will get off easy as NCAA changes the rules. If NCAA were smart, the days of punishing schools and athletic programs would be over and punishment would be doled out to individuals...kind of like the real world. Can you imagine if the real world were run like NCAA? Some employee from Microsoft steals from Apple, and the United States Department of Hypocrital Law Enforcement banned Microsoft from selling operating systems for four years and forced them to fire 10% of its employees? Does it not make sense to punish a coach that allows underage drinking, rather than the coach's entire football program?

 

[DRU2012]

But remember: the people involved can and DO currently "play the game" KNOWING how it works. Everyone has the option (or CERTAINTY, in the case of the top players) of moving on ahead of the prescribed punishments. So it's even MORE absurd than your example above: The "USDHLE" would forbid the company to HIRE a certain portion of the new "whiz kid"-employees coming out of colleges for a certain number of years, and ban the people left from all trade conventions for a similar period, the employees still there would suffer while the executives responsible (who've already cashed in BIGTIME) have long since moved on--with no punishment other than the supposed "disgrace" of having been there while it was happening.
But what can be done, as things stand now? The "Company" (ie. the University itself) made ITS choices , a multitude of them by a rather large group of individuals who acted as "enablers" at LEAST (and in their blind greed and determined efforts to "look the other way", "participants", or "benign overseers") knowing the rules AND the punishments and ACCEPTING that "risk/reward" equation. No matter how they rationalized it (for eg., in Miami's case, it seems they arrogantly thought the LIKELIHOOD of being pursued was negligible, plus the known mildness of practical sanctions so small--THEY'D BEEN THERE BEFORE, MORE THAN ONCE!--that there was no question it was worth it...by contrast, Auburn seems to have ACCEPTED the possibility of getting flagged and eventually being "punished", and decided the "rewards", a possible National Championship season and all that that would do for their egos, wallets AND (amazing in its blatant cynicism) the LONG term "visibility" and "tradition" of the school itself and its self-image, made whatever the aftermath WORTH it--and so far it has worked beyond reasonable expectation for everyone involved!), the University and its fans HAVE for the most part accepted, even willingly supported the whole process and defend it now. They went along for the ride, and if the punishments curtail some of their "future fun", well hey, they're getting off EASY. The players who are still there were recruited against the background of the same system and attitude. If they bare the brunt of the penalties, well, they had access to enough information going in (c'mon, ya know it's true) that the choice of committing now turns out to be a gamble that didn't quite go their way...notice I DIDN'T say they "lost"; no bowl games maybe (depending how long it takes the NCAA to actually DO something), but they're still at a "major program" and will get virtually the same "look" from the NFL they would have. You don't see USCw or tOSU really suffering in recruiting in the aftermath to either investigation OR penalty-phases, either. Apparently the players don't find the after-the-fact punishments THAT onerous. You do get the odd "inadvertent victim", the "decent guy" who gets blind-sided (Al Golden's got to be FURIOUS, called in based on certain expectations and promises in his "big step-up to the bigtime", instead a nightmare publicity obstacle course and at the other end a thankless holding action/rebuilding job, seduced and welcomed by a bunch of liars he's got to hope are ALL fired so that he doesn't have to DEAL with the slimeballs on a daily basis after all), but that doesn't include the recruited players, in my view, and CERTAINLY not the fans and supporters. If you read and listen to their comments and claims, Auburn's whenever new allegations surface or Miami's now, you can't feel much sympathy for these people.
We keep hearing how "it'll never happen again", but given the "system" we now have, the rules the NCAA itself long since made explicit, the "Death Penalty" is the ONLY option it has now to accomplish the two things it MUST appear to be accomplishing if it wishes to go on in its present form with anything more than figurehead "authority":
(1) It MUST see that (in its own words) "the culture of non-compliance" at the University of Miami is broken once and for all, the whole "UM community" forced to face the consequences of not just accepting, but taking PRIDE in a pervasive attitude of "livin' large is our normal way of doing business".
(2) There has GOT to be a boundary, this has got to be BEYOND it, it has got to STOP, and any hope to be taken seriously in dealing with all the OTHER stuff still pending elsewhere all OVER the college football landscape DEPENDS on it.
This over-the-top, rioting circus of a program-out-of-control is either an opportunity or a death knell for the NCAA:
It will be accepted and well-understood if they come down HARD here, and establish a clear line. String it out, start equivocating, worry about "powerful interests" and whose toes they might be stepping on and they are done for as the "Final Arbiter and Authority" in college athletics--in which case, good riddance.

(You know what I REALLY hate? This is going to follow us into the season now--the season that we have been chomping at the bit for these many months and is now finally, nearly HERE. That's another reason for the NCAA to have some sense and decency and get this moving QUICKLY--make a decision or two, make a clear, unequivocal, non-mealy-mouthed announcement about how they see it and what they plan to do, then DO it.
Let the rest of us get on with our season and the games and teams we love.)

 

[Leakfan12]

Looks like a dozen Canes players won't be playing this season.

 

[DRU2012]

It's a ploy, man--the same one Auburn pulled last year to KEEP Cam eligible from mid-season on despite the growing evidence that his dad had negotiated Cam's backroom "pay-for-play-at-Auburn"-agreement--and it worked beautifully for them: the Championship and Heisman won, Cam's long gone, and the "investigation is ongoing". Think Miami might be lookin' for a bit of that action?
(I get into the details of this whole process in commenting on the thread "Limited Immunity...")