XPost: dc.urban-planning, wa.politics   
   From: fritz@spamexpire-201305.rodent.frell.theremailer.net   
      
   Miami has finally received its notice of allegations from the   
   NCAA, a long-awaited document accuses the Hurricanes of a "lack   
   of institutional control" within its athletic department.   
      
   The allegations arrived on Tuesday. The institutional-control   
   charge is typically one of the most severe the NCAA can bring   
   after an investigation of rules violations. The governing body   
   for college athletics declined comment Tuesday, one day after   
   revealing that it was erasing some elements of its case against   
   Miami because the information was obtained in impermissible ways.   
      
   "We deeply regret any violations, but we have suffered enough,"   
   Miami President Donna Shalala said in a statement Tuesday night.   
      
   A person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press   
   that several former members of Miami coaching staffs are named   
   in the notice of allegations, including Missouri basketball   
   coach Frank Haith, who was with the Hurricanes from 2004-11.   
      
   Next up: The sanctions phase, where Miami's penalties will be   
   decided. The Hurricanes have already self-imposed several   
   sanctions, including sitting out two bowl games and a conference   
   football championship game. Shalala said Monday she believes   
   those punishments should be enough.   
      
   This saga started in September 2010, when the university told   
   the NCAA that convicted Ponzi scheme architect and former Miami   
   booster Nevin Shapiro made allegations to the school against   
   former players. Shapiro said he interacted mostly with football   
   players and recruits, as well as a significantly smaller number   
   of men's basketball players.   
      
   Shapiro is serving a 20-year prison term for masterminding a   
   $930 million fraud scheme.   
      
   "Many of the charges brought forth are based on the word of a   
   man who made a fortune by lying," Shalala wrote. "The NCAA   
   enforcement staff acknowledged to the University that if Nevin   
   Shapiro, a convicted con man, said something more than once, it   
   considered the allegation 'corroborated' — an argument which is   
   both ludicrous and counter to legal practice"   
      
   Miami wants to get through the sanctions portion of the process   
   as quickly as possible. But typically, it takes about three   
   months for a hearing, and then can take several weeks — if not   
   months — more for the penalties to be handed down. The sides   
   coming to a settlement beforehand is another possibility.   
      
   Shalala said Miami will work diligently to prepare a response to   
   the allegations within 90 days.   
      
   "We trust that the Committee on Infractions will provide the   
   fairness and integrity missing during the investigative   
   process," Shalala wrote.   
      
   Miami and the NCAA have gone back and forth on the wording of   
   the notice of allegations for several weeks, and the long-   
   awaited letter was nearly delivered last month. That's when the   
   NCAA acknowledged that some mistakes were made by its own   
   enforcement department. And that resulted in some allegations   
   coming out of the letter.   
      
   It also led to yet another delay in the process, which many at   
   Miami believe has dragged on for way too long.   
      
   "This cannot end quickly enough," Miami coach football Al Golden   
   said earlier this month.   
      
   Within about six months of Miami originally bringing the   
   information it had on Shapiro forward, an NCAA investigation was   
   quietly underway, and the story became widely known in August   
   2011 after Shapiro provided Yahoo Sports with details of what he   
   claimed to have given dozens of athletes, recruits and coaches   
   over an eight-year period.   
      
   Among the gifts Shapiro alleged to provide: Memorabilia, cash   
   amounts both large and small, dinners, strip-club trips,   
   prostitutes, and even an abortion.   
      
   Shalala, however, labeled most of those alleged benefits as   
   "sensationalized media accounts."   
      
   "Despite their efforts over two and a half years, the NCAA   
   enforcement staff could not find evidence of prostitution,   
   expensive cars for players, expensive dinners paid for by   
   boosters, player bounty payments, rampant alcohol and drug use,   
   or the alleged hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and   
   gifts given to student-athletes, as reported in the media,"   
   Shalala wrote. "The fabricated story played well — the facts did   
   not."   
      
   Several Miami football and men's basketball players have either   
   served suspensions, paid restitution or both in the past two   
   years after their involvement with Shapiro was discovered.   
   Apparently upset with how people he thought were friends turned   
   their back on him following his conviction for the Ponzi   
   operation, Shapiro vowed that he would take down the program,   
   and his attorney — a Miami alum — was willing to help the NCAA's   
   cause.   
      
   Documents released Monday by the NCAA showed that Shapiro's   
   attorney, Maria Elena Perez, offered to assist investigators   
   working the Miami case by using subpoena power to depose   
   witnesses under the guise of a bankruptcy case. NCAA enforcement   
   officials accepted her offer, even feeding her questions to ask   
   for at least one of the depositions, and records show they paid   
   at least $19,000 for her work — though she billed them for three   
   times that much.   
      
   Perez did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday night.   
   Shawn Eichorst, the Nebraska athletic director who held the same   
   role at Miami for some of the NCAA probe, also declined comment.   
   Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt, who was the AD at   
   Miami for some of the time when Shapiro was a booster, did not   
   respond to a request for comment.   
      
   Shalala also said former Miami athletic director Paul Dee, who   
   held the job before Hocutt, also was not interviewed by the NCAA   
   before his death in May 2012. Dee also was a member of the   
   NCAA's committee on infractions, most notably when sanctions —   
   including a two-year bowl ban, scholarship reductions and   
   vacating victories — came down against Southern California in   
   2010, stemming from improper benefits given to then-Heisman   
   Trophy winner Reggie Bush by sports marketers. Dee chaired the   
   committee at the time, then saying "higher-profile players   
   require higher-profile monitoring."   
      
   "The NCAA enforcement staff failed, even after repeated   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)