Buried in a blog post, there is an interesting tidbit in the Miami Hearld this morning.

An official close to the NCAA’s investigation said several former UM players have refused to speak to the NCAA, as expected, and the NCAA probably won’t be able to corroborate most of what Nevin Shapiro claimed against more than 50 former Hurricanes players. Canes coaches "told me there might a little penalty but not as bad as some people think," said Columbus High’s Deon Bush, the nation’s No. 4 safety prospect who is considering UM.

Fact is, no one at UM knows for sure what to expect, but there’s optimism the penalty won’t be crushing. One UM official said the irony is beyond all the harm that Shapiro has done, UM ended up losing money on him, because it had to return his donations and because he never paid the $50,000-plus for his Sun Life Stadium suite in 2009.

You can look at this a couple of different ways...

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This is only the beginning...

If nothing else the NCAA naming Nevin Shapiro in an official report signifies that they believe infractions took place.

Eight University of Miami football student-athletes must miss competition and repay benefits as a condition of becoming eligible to play again, according to a decision today by the NCAA student-athlete reinstatement staff. The student-athletes received varying levels of recruiting inducements and extra benefits from university booster Nevin Shapiro and athletics personnel, according to the facts of the case.

Reinstatement decisions are independent of the NCAA enforcement process and typically are made once the facts of the student-athlete’s involvement are determined. This is typically well in advance of infractions decisions. The enforcement investigation into the University of Miami is ongoing.

Now, I also have some issues with this.

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Well at least now we know why the only players being investigated are from Miami.

Another day another relatively unknown rule used by the NCAA

"The enforcement staff has been given, by the membership, a pretty important investigative tool," Roe Lach told CBSSports.com in an exclusive interview.

"Limited immunity" is a little-known procedure granted to NCAA investigators to get information from a player "when such an individual otherwise might be declared ineligible for intercollegiate competition," according to the NCAA Manual.

Roe Lach put it another way: "When we think that's really our only shot of getting that information."

In essence, it allows guilty parties to become informants in exchange for playing time. The report contains at least two Miami transfers -- Marve and Kansas State linebacker Arthur Brown -- as well as seven players from other schools who were recruited by Miami but enrolled elsewhere.

This rule is like the rule that the NCAA suddenly pulled out to let the Tat-5 play in the Sugar Bowl.

Just curious, when did the membership give the NCAA that rule??

Here are a couple more tidbits...

During the 25-minute interview, Roe Lach was speaking in broad terms and never specifically about the Miami case. She said prospects who take extra benefits at one school but sign with another are not pursued unless they are receiving those benefits from an agent.

What a racket!

Take benefits from one school and then enroll at another and they won't hunt you down...unless the benefits are from an agent!

But wasn't Shapiro the owner of a sports marketing firm...an agent?

I can't wait to see how Shapiro is characterized...Booster, Agent or BOTH!

I have always got a kick out Dan LeBatard.

I agree with him on some things and disagree with him on others...nothing earth shattering there, that is just how life is. But for the most part I have always respected his wit and insight, even if I didn't agree with him.

LeBatard is also an unabashed Miami homer.

That's fine, LeBatard attended the school during its heyday, just like Yahoo! Radio's Todd Wright and ESPN's Bruce Feldman.

All three saw the program up close, so they know where a lot of bodies are buried.

They are well versed in the lore of the U.

This morning LeBatard makes the point that there is a lot of noise and not a lot substance when discussing the current situation at the U.

The demand for facts tends to be directly proportional to your own proximity to allegations and consequences. Something is really unfair, too often, only when it happens to you. Sports noise is usually more emotional than it is empathic or nuanced, so people take sides, believing absolutes, even though the truth is rarely found in the extremes. UM is either contaminated and corrupt at the core, totally out of control and in need of death. Or the unfair, evil media is conspiring with this snake scum to fly planes into UM’s buildings.

Funny...

LeBatard was one of those that excoriated USC when our sanctions were announced, but now he wants the "noise" tamped down so that the facts can determined.

I highly doubt LeBatard read any of the documents pertaining to USC and the COI. If he had, the question I would ask is do you think the NCAA made its case? Did they stretch things to make the story fit their narrative?

LeBatard wants to blame the system...is he going to lead the charge?

This is the same NCAA that will ultimately stand in judgment of the U.

They were unchecked then...does anyone think things have changed?

I would love to see Paul Dee put through the exact same process that Todd McNair or Mike Garrett went through. Make no mistake, Dee will have to appear. But because the NCAA is corrupt his attendance will be but a footnote...nothing of substance will come of his testimony, even though you can use his own words against him.

The fix is in and the good 'ole boy network will look out for their own.

I find it hilarious that LeBatard demands that we ignore the 'noise while searching for the true facts in regards to Miami when he was one of those voices making 'noise' without having really looked at the details in regards to USC.

Towards the end of the article LeBatard details many of the ills that have befallen The U over the years. He notes that those transgressions didn't take The U down back then...is he insinuating that this latest episode won't take them down either?

Must make him proud...

You can't make this stuff up.

If there is justice in the world, Paul Dee's own words will come back to haunt him...

Former University of Miami athletic director Paul Dee said Friday he is "absolutely sickened’’ by the allegations facing the Hurricanes, urged everyone involved to tell the truth, and conceded that Nevin Shapiro, the incarcerated booster at the center of the scandal, "should have been on our radar.’’

The only issue they had with Shapiro, Dee said, is that "he kept promising gifts he didn’t deliver.’’ Also, he rubbed football coach Randy Shannon the wrong way, to the point that Shannon warned his players about Shapiro. Dee admits that should have been a red flag.

Again..."SHOULD. HAVE. KNOWN."

This is what he said to USC, this is pretty much what he said to Long Beach State.

The more Dee talks the worse it gets...

Dee said Shapiro never asked for anything extraordinary, and was treated like all the other boosters who made substantial donations. He was given sideline passes for a few football games a year, but that is a common courtesy.

"It is not an unusual request for a trustee or booster to ask for a field pass,’’ said Dee, who served as chairman of the NCAA Infractions Committee. "I’ve had trustees take their kids down there to get photos before a game, boosters down there for pre-game warm-ups, those are little favors we did for the people who supported our program and it has never burned us before....

Sounds like the same sort of atmosphere that was on the USC sideline...the same atmosphere that "troubled" the committee and that has led to practices being closed and sidelines at games looking like a ghost town.

I mean its not like Shapiro was running a black-op. According to the Feds all the signs were there...

Gil Childers, who was a part of the New Jersey prosecution team that investigated Shapiro's $930 million Ponzi scheme, told NBC Miami that the recent allegations that have surfaced about UM were not new news to him and that Shapiro's connections to the university were not that hard to find.

"We did reach out to the university and that did include some people who were directly involved in the Athletic Department," Childers said.

[...]

Childers said he wasn't allowed to name any names but that some players may have also been interviewed who may have taken gifts and money from Shapiro.

He also said they were ready to call in former and current players to bolster their case against Shapiro.

Let that last sentence sink in for a moment...

Remember how the NCAA was waiting for Reggie Bush's deposition in Lloyd Lake's lawsuit?

Well, if the NCAA waits long enough for these interviews, they will have an iron clad case against Miami and Paul Dee will be even more humiliated.

Dee is boxing the NCAA into a corner with his constant chin wagging.

Can't wait to see Dee walk into the COI with his attorney to answer for his lack of oversight.

Should have known...

Allow me to put my tinfoil hat on for just a moment.

With 72 or 73 players implicated in the Miami scandal, there is one question that I would like to ask.

How can the NCAA clear players so quickly if this information is just getting out? Even if by the NCAA's claim, that the NCAA has been looking into this for five months, how can they clear Robert Marve and Bryce Brown?

The evidence obtained by Yahoo! is pretty damning.

Here is the info on Bryce Brown...

The Browns' spiritual adviser, Brian Butler, told The Wichita Eagle that he and the Browns didn't know Shapiro was a Miami booster. Instead, they thought Shapiro was just a fan who helped players from out of state.

"In our case, he did invite us to lunch and we did go to lunch, and he did reserve some rooms for us, for myself and Mr. Brown senior," Butler told the newspaper. "Those things, I can say that he did."

Butler added that Shapiro "wasn't giving us money and trying to pay us or bring Bryce or Arthur there, Arthur was already at the school."

Oh, that is rich!!!

Does Butler think we are nuts?

Last time I checked the parents and player are one in the same....unless its the Newton's and the Brown's aren't all that.

Clearing Brown is essentially opening the flood gates to parents being wined and dined. I mean there are rules against that....you know like how USC was nailed for Mike Ornstein doing virtually the same thing with Reggie Bush's parents.

I mean who else other than a booster would pay $1100 in hotel rooms for the Brown's? Shapiro is virtual unknown to them otherwise.

Then there is Marve...

• Two sources corroborated Shapiro having paid for at least two dinners for Marve at Prime 112 steakhouse.

• Two sources corroborated Shapiro’s bodyguards and Miami staffer Sean Allen providing Marve with transportation at the request of the booster.

• Three sources corroborated Marve receiving drinks and VIP access at nightclubs such as Mansion and Opium Garden from Shapiro.

• Yahoo! Sports also acquired photos showing Marve in Shapiro’s VIP section of a nightclub in October 2008. In one of the photos, both Marve and then-Miami basketball assistant coach Jorge Fernandez were present with Shapiro in the booster’s VIP section.

Yeah, nothing there.

That is a heck of a lot of corroborated evidence that the NCAA is ignoring to clear Marve.

It would appear that the words of a convicted felon don't have as much weight as they did just a few years ago.

The sham continues....

Sometimes the stories just write themselves.

We all heard that the University of Miami might have a compliance problem.

What may draw your ire or amusement, depending on your mood, are the current words of the infamous Paul Dee...

"We didn’t have any suspicion that he was doing anything like this," Dee told the Post. "He didn’t do anything to cause concern. …

"We treated him very fairly as we do all donors. He would come by, ask to go out to practice and we would send one of our staffers to accompany him. In terms of kids getting close to him or him getting close to the kids, I have no knowledge of that and my staff had no knowledge of that."

Uh, huh...sure you didn't.

I guess there was no chance of anything happening AWAY from campus right Paul?

You know like nothing happened with the alleged agents prowling the sidelines at USC's practices or in the locker room after games.

This is worse because they escorted Shapiro around.

One could say that it was going on right under Miami's nose...THEY SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!

Of course this means nothing. The NCAA won't change anything. It's a blip on their screen. They think it is OK for the former AD of the program who was at the center of largest Pell-Grant fraud scheme ever to sit in judgment of another school on the COI.

Right...that's not a corrupt organization.

Gotta love it.