The University of Miami Scandal

The Investigation

After 11 months and many, many interviews Yahoo! Sports broke the story about a University of Miami booster, Nevin Shapiro, giving illicit benefits to at least 72 Miami football and basketball players between 2002 and 2010. The football players include well known athletes such as Jonathan Vilma, Vince Wilfork, Kellen Winslow Jr., Devin Hester, Andre Johnson, Frank Gore, Antrel Rolle, Jacory Harris as well as multiple football and basketball coaches. Shapiro is currently in jail and looking at a 20 year sentence for a ponzi scheme that amounted to $930 million. The booster is said to have given players money; paid for nights out at clubs and strip joints, meals, and drinks; allowed them to stay at his house and use his yacht anytime; offered bounties, money for an accomplishment during a game; provided prostitutes; and in one case even provided money for an abortion. He also used his power to impress and bribe potential recruits to join the Hurricanes. Shapiro has provided many receipts from nights out and photos of himself with players as proof for his actions.

It’s a simple case of a small (5’5”), white guy wanna-be trying to feel more important by using money to hang out with big, black athletes. He was not going to play football for the team so he found another way to become involved. He became a booster, grew relationships with players by bribing them with money and gifts, and reaped the rewards of it all.

A Piece of Garbage

It is clear that this scumbag has no reason to detail his infractions other than to get back at the players and the university. Although it is obviously better for these players to get caught to prevent future problems, the intent was not for the better good. According to the report, after being incarcerated he asked multiple players for bail money and other assistance. The players did not provide any help and thus led to resentment from Shapiro which caused him to rat out the athletes. Shapiro had almost nothing to lose considering he was already in trouble for the ponzi scheme so blowing the whistle on himself did not nearly have as much of an impact as it did on the Miami players.

In the report, Shapiro is quoted in defending his decision to report the rule breaking. “...I’m telling the truth about what happened at Miami. It’s the truth. And you tell me, why should the University of Miami be exempt from the truth?” No Nevin, we are not the ones who have to explain why UM should be excused from the truth. Nobody thought the school was above the truth except you. You tell us why they should be exempt from the truth because you are the one who has been hiding the truth for eight years. In those eight years you helped Miami hide the truth from the NCAA so start explaining.

It was reported that Shapiro offered players bounties during games for a great play that they did. For example, for “hit of the game” and “big plays” players were paid a certain amount. In addition, Shapiro “also put bounties on specific players, including Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow and a three-year standing bounty on Seminoles quarterback Chris Rix from 2002 to 2004, offering $5,000 to any player who knocked him out of a game.” Believe it or not this is only the tip of the ice berg of how sick this guy really is. Offering money to players who hurt opponents? What a disgusting thing to do. Football is violent enough as it is, but waving money in front of the faces of college student and telling them they will be rewarded for bigger, more violent hits is a recipe for disaster. If a player like Jon Vilma, who apparently was very anxious to get that bonus, is going after Chris Rix then he is going to try his best to get him out of the game by any means necessary, legal or illegal. Let’s say Vilma makes a dirty hit on Rix and knocks him out of the game, a possibly more games. Vilma is called for unnecessary roughness, costing his team fifteen yards, but after the game he gets rewarded for the hit with thousands of dollars. This shows Shapiro’s clear lack of respect not only for the players but for the game as a whole.

The most disgusting story Yahoo! Sports reported was probably his paying for the abortion of a player’s child. As I said before, Shapiro paid for prostitutes for the players while in the strip joints. Apparently a lot of prostitutes. Well one of those instances with a dancer went wrong. “...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].’” Now, I am not going to give you some pro-choice or pro-life speech because that is not the point of mentioning this. Regardless of anyone’s political beliefs, the bottom line is it was not his decision to make and not telling the player about it again proves his lack of respect for anyone. In addition, referring to the player as “idiot” because he may have wanted to keep the baby is absurd and disturbing. Just because Shapiro feels that way does not mean that the player does and the booster is not in a place to make a judgement call like that for the athlete without discussing it with him first.

You can try and argue that players were trying to take advantage of the booster. Anyone who gives out money and gifts like that is bound to attract attention from the athletes. But if the Miami players were taking advantage of Shapiro, then he was taking just as much advantage of them. Shapiro was a partial owner of the sports agency Axcess Sports and had every intention of funneling them into this agency when they became professionals, thus profiting from the millions they would make in the NFL.

Off With Their Heads!

Only once before has the death penalty been employed as punishment by the NCAA towards a football team. In 1985 Southern Methodist University (SMU) was put on probation for recruiting violations. In 1986 it was discovered that SMU players were being paid around $700 per month through the school with money provided by a booster. As a result, the team’s 1987 season was cancelled, all 1988 home games were cancelled, probation was extended until 1990, and the school would lose 55 scholarships over four years, along with a number of other punishments.

In may be time to use the death penalty once more. Although the University of Miami may not have been on probation while they were breaking rules, the allegations seem to be as serious, if not more so, than those of SMU back in the day. 72 Miami athletes, mostly football players, getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in benefits over eight years. It sucks for the current players who have had nothing to do with this scandal, but unfortunately that is the way it has to be. There is not a whole lot, if anything, that can be done to those players not involved with the school any more but the university needs to be made an example of. They need to lose at least a season of football as well as at least 60 scholarships over 4 years and multiple years not being allowed to play in bowl games. In addition, almost everyone needs to lose their jobs including the president and athletic directors of the school. Unfortunately recently hired head coach Al Golden is put in a difficult situation and if the school did not inform him of any pending investigations or problems, Golden should be able to take legal action on the school as well as seek other head coaching opportunities, although the season starts soon so this may just be a lost year for him.

The university can try and play ignorant on this one in order to avoid such a tough punishment, but I do not know how credible that will be since evidence points to some sort of knowledge of this. First of all, Paul Dee was the athletic director of the school from 1993-2008. The same Paul Dee that once was chairman of the committee of infractions for the NCAA in 2010 and dismissed the scandal of Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo at USC as “systematic failure.” So a former member of the athletic staff during the time of the scandal has a history of not taking such problems too seriously. In addition, Shapiro was allowed to lead the Miami football team onto the field, twice, before games, which is an honor not given to just any booster. The school also found out, after a background check on Shapiro, that he was involved in the representation agency Axcess Sports as well as a booster for the school, creating an obvious conflict of interest, yet the school chose to ignore it. 

How to Prevent These Scandals

Unfortunately, there is not a whole lot the NCAA can do about these constant problems within college sports. Short of following every single player around, there is no way of policing everyone. In addition, paying the athletes for playing may not help anything either. College students, especially those from poor backgrounds, are not going to refuse money or extravagant gifts no matter how much they are paid by the NCAA. They will always want more. If the school gives them $500 a month, they are not going to turn down an extra $500 or a car or television from boosters. The only way to prevent schools and players from partaking in illegal activities like this is the same as why people do not steal: It is morally wrong and people are afraid of being caught. By instituting a harsh penalty such as the death penalty, it will give players and schools a reason to be afraid of breaking the rules.

Quotes and information courtesy of Yahoo! Sports