If you thought what Ohio State football or USC football did to earn themselves extensive NCAA investigations into their athletic programs, Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports presents to you the University of Miami.
Robinson and Yahoo Sports have let the entire world in on an 11 month investigation that has surfaced some of the most unethical and damning evidence the NCAA hasn’t seen since the Pony Express of the 1980’s.
The allegations stem from former booster Nevin Shapiro who reportedly supplied University of Miami athletes with cash, prostitutes, entertainment, and much more. Shapiro, who is now serving time in prison for a Ponzi Scheme that he alleges involved the University, blew the whistle after former Hurricane athletes turned their backs on him in his time of need.
Here are the reported benefits given to the University of Miami Athletes…
cash, prostitutes, entertainment in his multimillion-dollar homes and yacht, paid trips to high-end restaurants and nightclubs, jewelry, bounties for on-field play (including bounties for injuring opposing players), travel and on one occasion, an abortion.
But exactly how thorough was this investigation conducted by Yahoo?
Yahoo! Sports audited approximately 20,000 pages of financial and business records from his bankruptcy case, more than 5,000 pages of cell phone records, multiple interview summaries tied to his federal Ponzi case, and more than 1,000 photos. Nearly 100 interviews were also conducted with individuals living in six different states. In the process, documents, photos and 21 human sources – including nine former Miami players or recruits, and one former coach – corroborated multiple parts of Shapiro’s rule-breaking.
Now the aforementioned Ohio State shouldn’t think that Miami’s troubles are going to take the spotlight away from their own investigation. If anything the NCAA (if they want to begin to get any credibility back) will slow themselves down and re-open the books on some of their more recent investigations.
Good luck Miami, you’re going to need it.
Source: Yahoo Sports