Miami Versus The NCAA: A Breakdown Of Miami's Motion To Dismiss

Last week Miami filed a motion with the NCAA to take the unprecedented step of a full on dismissal of their case. This type of thing has never happened before, but then again, there has never been an investigation quite like this one.

A Breakdown Of Donna Shalala's Official Statement

Miami President Donna Shalala released an official statement in the wake of the school receiving the Notice Of Allegations from the NCAA. Her words were poignant, harsh, and very much needed. Here's a breakdown of exactly what this means going forward.

An Era Is Coming To A Close: Miami Has Received Its Notice Of Allegations

After more than two years, countless confirmed and unconfirmed reports, numerous interviews, speculation, and an internal investigation, the NCAA has finally delivered the Notice Of Allegations to Miami. So, what now?

CBS Reports That NCAA Vice President Approved Payment To Shapiro's Attorney

The news for the NCAA just keeps getting worse for them, and more hilarious for us.

The NCAA: Miami Prepared To Fight Back

It looks like the road to being done with the NCAA is not yet over, but it at least appears that the University is prepared to do what it can to bring it to a close.

The NCAA President Drops A Bombshell On The Miami Investigation

During a conference call on Wednesday afternoon, NCAA president Mark Emmert dropped an absolute bombshell with regards to the Miami investigation. However, the information released may not be what you think. Read on for the details!

A Chat With John Infante: The NCAA Bylaw Blogger Provides His Insight On Miami And The NCAA

On the heels of a couple of reports that former Miami coaches Frank Haith, Aubrey Hill, and Clint Hurtt will be hammered by the NCAA, Manny Navarro of the Miami Herald chatted with John Infante, proprietor of the Bylaw Blog.

Infante gave his insight on the current state of the NCAA investigation, and what the recent reports could mean for Miami. If you'll remember, we provided this update to you last week, outlining information that we had heard in response to the report that the NOA would be delivered within 72 hours of last Monday (which turned out to be false). Since then, it's basically come to light that a lot of what we had been told was correct, and that the main focus of the NCAA was on the former coaches involved, and the university has been playing second chair.

Infante had this to say about what the allegations against the former coaches means for Miami:

"Well, it sounds like nearly all the assistants are being charged with unethical conduct and it also sounds like Frank Haith is going to be charged with failing to create an atmosphere of compliance, which generally only head coaches are charged with. It can be helpful [for Miami]. The biggest thing is when you have that many coaches [charged with unethical conduct] and go in front of the Committee on Infractions there's going to be a lot of people in the room to spread blame around.

When you talk about the presentations and the answers given in front of the COI, I think generally the feeling is amongst a lot of people who have gone through that process is that coaches tend not to perform as well as the institution does. In the end for Miami, it all kind of depends what kind of charges the school is facing. We kind of expect in addition to the specific violations the NCAA feels it has evidence of it's pretty much a guarantee there is going to be a failure to monitor charge.

I would also be surprised if there is not a lack of institutional control charge as well. If Miami's cooperation is considered better and the coaches don't perform well in the hearing that could lead to the COI sort of finding that in spite of institutional failings by Miami this was more the coaches fault and bring the penalties down on the coaches more than on the institution -- especially considering the two post-season bans the [football program] has already imposed."

This opinion, while it does mention that Miami could be hit with failure to monitor and the LOIC charge, lends itself more to the idea that when it comes time for the parties involved to plead their cases, Miami's lawyers and staff will have a much easier time of it. This will no doubt be bolstered by the fact that the head coach during the majority of the allegations, Randy Shannon, was extremely vocal about his disdain for Shapiro and cautioned everyone who would listen to stay away from him.

Being that Shannon was basically the middleman between the football program and Shalala et al, it should be much easier for the university to plead its case that the coaches named were the major violators here, and that the school should not be held as accountable as they were. This was more or less validated by Infante:

"It certainly does. We've seen Shannon not being named in any of the violations and him not facing any unethical conduct or failing to promote an atmosphere of compliance charges. Because he is the head coach, he is supposed to be the one as the direct link to the administration and what they do in terms of monitoring and applying compliance. If he did that well, that helps show there was a chain of command of monitoring and promoting institutional control and thus the blame falls on the assistant coaches.

If that's the case then, we may see kind of a smaller failure to monitor or lack of institutional control that could end up more centered on the basketball violations where it looks like the head coach was involved in some manner. While charges like failure to monitor are institution violations it can get to be more specific than that. It can focus on what sport led to that charge."

This could be worse news for the basketball program than the football program, as Infante noted. Haith is a major player in the allegations, and he, at least in some way, looks to be involved with Shapiro while he was head coach of the team. Whether this means that he himself will get hit and the basketball program will be left alone, or whether they both will be hit remains to be seen. Either way, the process will certainly be a convoluted one, whenever it gets to being finished.

You can read the rest of the story by Navarro and Infante by clicking on these words.

NCAA/Miami Update: Former Coach Frank Haith Could Be In Trouble

Last week we provided a fairly big update regarding the ongoing investigation that the NCAA is conducting into a large scale violations report against Miami. In that update, we stated that we had heard from multiple sources that the NCAA was treating this situation as a group of rogue individuals rather than punishing the University by itself, which could potentially be huge regarding the eventual sanctions.

With the apparent mentality that the NCAA has towards this investigation, it could mean that Miami skates on the dreaded Lack Of Institutional Control charge that generally ruins football programs for a while. On Monday afternoon, a CBS report by Jeff Goodman surfaced that highlighted what former hoops coach Frank Haith could stand to lose at the conclusion of this investigation.

The NCAA is expected to release a notice of allegations as early as this week regarding the Miami investigation. A source close to the situation told CBSSports.com that former Hurricanes and current Missouri basketball coach Frank Haith is expected to be charged with unethical conduct and failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance.

If Haith is indeed charged with the above, that will almost guarantee a Show Cause Order against the former coach. If he is hit with that, depending on the length of the order, it will be up to his current employer whether or not to keep him on staff. By doing so, they would run the risk of being hit with penalties themselves is Haith commits any violations while under their employ. This is great news for Miami, because it adds credence to the notion that the NCAA is going more after the individuals named in the Shapiro report rather than concentrating on Miami. While this does not mean that Miami will not get punished at all, it does mean that they will not bear the brunt of the sanctions.

Perhaps the biggest key to making that assumption is this passage in Goodman's report:

The source told CBSSports.com that the NCAA was unable to prove the allegation from Miami booster Nevin Shapiro that Haith or anyone on his staff paid $10,000 to a family member of former player DeQuan Jones. However, Haith will be charged with unethical conduct because the NCAA did not believe his story that payments to his assistants intended for camp money did not wind up going to repay Shapiro, who made the allegations to Yahoo Sports back in August of 2011. A source said that the money was delivered to Shapiro's mother -- who verified the payment to the NCAA.

The reported $10,000 payment to DeQuan Jones was by far the largest single violation in the Shapiro report, and if Goodman's source is correct, the NCAA cannot prove it, and therefore cannot rule on it. This is corroborated by the fact that Jones was suspended due to the allegation, but reinstated by the NCAA one day after a witness testified in court that the payment had not happened. If the NCAA had any reason to suspect the allegation was true, there's no reason to reinstate Jones so quickly.

We also reported in our update that Haith would not be the only former hoops coach to be targeted. According to the report, three former assistants will also be given penalties:

The source also said the three assistants previously on Haith's staff -- Jake Morton, Jorge Fernandez and Michael Schwartz -- each will receive unethical conduct charges. Morton is currently at Western Kentucky, Fernandez left Marshall after last season and Schwartz is on the Fresno State staff.

All parties named will of course have the requisite 90 day period to respond to the allegations before being given the final sanctions. Regardless of the outcome of those hearings, Canes fans should breathe a sigh of relief not only that the NCAA is taking such a stance on the investigation as a whole, but that Haith will finally be nailed for the things alleged to have happened under his tenure.

NCAA Investigation Update: Things Are Looking Up For Miami

I know that you all have been clamoring for some sort of update on the NCAA investigation. We here at SOTU have been checking with people we know over the last few days, gathering enough info to be able to give you some sort of decent idea of what is happening, and of course making sure that what we have been told has been corroborated in some form or fashion.

Well, here we are. And the news is better.

The important thing to remember is that while the info we have gotten has either been reported elsewhere as is or in a similar fashion, nothing is concrete until the NCAA makes their ruling.

To begin with, the main thing that we are hearing is that the NCAA is taking an individualized approach to this situation. While they are still looking to punish Miami in some way, they are spending a LOT of time and effort in putting together cases and allegations against former coaches, boosters, and possibly players. The three major names that will likely be targeted in all of this are Aubrey Hill, Frank Haith, and Clint Hurtt. While we have been told nothing specific, those three will likely be looking at some sort of show cause order at minimum. Other former coaches, namely former basketball assistants Jake Morton and Jorge Hernandez, have come under intense scrutiny as well. Haith himself (and, of course, his lawyer) seem to be doing a bit of hedging in recent days, as evidenced by the Miami Herald interview they conducted:

The lawyer representing former University of Miami basketball coach Frank Haith in the Miami-related NCAA case said Haith — now the coach at Missouri — had not received a notice of allegations from the NCAA as of Wednesday night, and that they, "like everyone else,’’ are anxiously awaiting what transpires.

Attorney Michael L. Buckner also told The Miami Herald that Haith "has given the NCAA thousands of pages of documents at Coach Haith’s own expense,’’ and that "the bill for him acquiring these documents has cost well into the thousands of dollars.

"It has been over 15 months since he first was interviewed, and he’s cooperated the whole time,’’ Buckner said by phone. "We just want to know when this process will end.’’

This approach by the NCAA shows their switch to punishing the individuals responsible rather than punishing the university by itself. This bodes very well for Miami in a few ways. For one, it is no secret at all that Randy Shannon tried to distance himself and the program as much as possible from Shapiro, even going so far as to threaten firings and suspensions for anyone who had contact with him. If the NCAA pores over the evidence they have and sees that it was a few rogue individuals that were involved in the majority of the violations, there's an outside chance that Miami could avoid the dreaded Lack Of Institutional Control charge.

On that front, we have not been told that the LOIC charge is forthcoming, but it has not been debunked either. CaneSport is also reporting more or less the same thing, that while it has not been acknowledged either way, the evidence and what info is being passed around lends itself to that charge not being present in the final rulings.

Editor's Note: With regards to the LOIC charge, it is extremely important to remember that nothing is final. We are simply reporting on the general feeling of our sources and others that we have seen, and while we feel confident enough to put the information out there, it is by no means a definite indication that that charge is not going to be levied.

It has also been reported that the NCAA may force the University to disassociate anyone who has refused to speak to the NCAA and will effectively cut them off. This matches up with what we were told last week, that before the NOA would be delivered, the NCAA wants to filter out anyone who did not come to them to talk and make sure they are gone.

The last bit of info deals with how things may shake out months down the road. Based on everything that is out there, the general feeling is that Miami guessed right. The 2 consecutive bowl bans, suspensions of players at the beginning of 2011, and forcing them to repay any money they were involved with have all been the correct proactive moves. While, again, nothing is official until it is, it is looking more and more likely that if they do in fact miss the LOIC charge, there will likely be no further bowl bans, and the punishment will center around scholarship reductions, the show causes or other such penalties for the individual former coaches, and a few minor infractions committed by current staff members during the investigation.

Miami And The NCAA: Are We There Yet?

News started flying around today that Miami would potentially be receiving their notice of allegations from the NCAA as early as Monday.