Amid the allegations surrounding the Miami Hurricanes athletic program, NCAA president Mark Emmert says he will backup his tough talk with strict penalties for rule-breakers, even using the death penalty as a deterrent.
Recently the NCAA said they would bypass their statue of limitations meaning that the NCAA could punish Miami for infractions committed more than five years ago. If this is the case, Miami could be seen as a repeat offender after their baseball program was put on probation within that five-year window.
Because of the heinous acts committed by former Miami booster Nevin Shapiro on behalf of the U’s athletic program, Emmert believed the infractions committee should make the harshest penalty an option.
“If, and I say if, we have very unique circumstances where TV bans and death penalties are warranted, then I don’t think they are off the table and I would be OK with putting those in place,” Emmert told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday.
Emmert did however mention that the discussion of penalties is a little premature.
“I will say that the university is being extremely cooperative and that is extremely helpful,” Emmert said. “But if, and I underline the word if, the allegations are true, that’s extremely disappointing.”
If the allegations are true (which they probably are), it may live up to be the ugliest scandal the NCAA has seen in years and perhaps more damning than the Poney Express of the 1980’s. These allegations also come as the NCAA has conducted investigations into the Southern California, Auburn, Oregon, Ohio State, Michigan, North Carolina, LSU, Tennessee and Georgia Tech football programs. Extensive NCAA investigations have also recently been conducted in the Southern California and Connecticut basketball programs.
Both Miami Basketball and Football fall under the current allegations surrounding the athletic program.
Source: Yahoo! Sports