Notice of Allegations not coming soon for Frank Haith

The NCAA announced on Wednesday that it will be investigating potentially improper conduct that occurred during its own investigation of the University of Miami athletic program.

According to the NCAA’s release, former enforcement staff members worked with the criminal defense attorney for former Miami booster Nevin Shapiro to improperly obtain information for the purposes of the NCAA investigation through a bankruptcy proceeding that did not involve the NCAA.

Additionally, NCAA president Mark Emmert said during a teleconference on Wednesday that the NCAA may have actually had Shapiro’s attorney on its payroll without anyone knowing about it. He also dropped the bomb that former NCAA investigators worked with Shapiro’s attorney to improperly subpeona and depose witnesses.

No one is happier about this absolute embarrassment than Missouri basketball coach Frank Haith.

Earlier this week, Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com reported that Haith would soon be receiving a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA that would charge him with unethical conduct and a failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance. The NCAA believed that Haith had lied to them about transgressions that took place during his time as the head basketball coach at Miami.

Now, with the NCAA beginning an investigation into potential unethical conduct that took place during its own investigation into potential unethical conduct (this is the worst possible sequel to Inception), that Notice of Allegations is unlikely to come anytime soon.

Haith was standing to receive a multi-year show-cause penalty akin to the one handed out to Bruce Pearl for his 2011 violations. Because of that, many had written in recent days that Haith’s job, and potentially his career, were on life support. He’s not going to come out of this whole thing completely unscathed, but the odds that his career won’t be completely wrecked are certainly better than they were 24 hours ago.