NCAA’s Miami investigation is finally (finally) over: Minor penalties for Canes

This is it for the NCAA. Well, for this NCAA.

In what’s likely its last major enforcement decision before a looming major overhaul — one that might well include a completely new division of schools with its own new rules — the NCAA has finally announced its decision on Miami football, almost four years after the university first alerted the NCAA.

Miami will face a combined reduction of nine scholarships over the next three seasons. The NCAA does not specify exactly how those scholarship losses must be broken down, which could be an oversight in the release, or a detail intentionally left out to allow Miami to choose how to distribute the losses. It does not appear that the losses impact the number of players Miami can bring in per class, either, which is a relief.

Update: According to the NCAA’s release, Miami can assign its nine lost scholarships to any years it chooses over the next three. Miami has flexibility.

Update: This is official. The NCAA found Miami lacked institutional control, detailing its findings in its 102-page release. In addition to the scholarship and coaching sanctions below, Miami will also be placed on probation for three years. Also, we learn Miami self-imposed recruiting sanctions on itself last year. Bud Elliott has more on the effects of the sanctions. They’re effectively nil.

The NCAA will announce the results of its investigation into Miami’s football program on Tuesday, penalizing the Hurricanes nine scholarships and potentially other sanctions, according to local and national reports. However, the Canes will be able to return to the postseason after giving up trips in two straight years. Miami will reportedly not appeal, meaning this story is essentially done.

The odd thing about the entire process (well, besides everything involved with this investigation), is that Dye had not yet been ruled ineligible by the NCAA. Dye’s issues with the NCAA are over some inconsistent interview answers he gave to investigators regarding former Miami assistant Aubrey Hill. Dye was interviewed three times just this year, and he claims that his testimony was coerced by NCAA investigators.

Considering all that’s gone wrong with this investigation, it’s certainly plausible. He pursued charges against the investigator, Rich Johanningmeier,saying that he threatened his eligibility if he wouldn’t tell him what he wanted to hear, but the state’s attorney decided against pressing felony charges. Johanningmeier is now retired.

“The U.” It’s a hand symbol synonymous with Miami athletics, used by players stretching back to the ‘Canes of the early 1990s, immortalized by Michael Irvin, and carried on to this day. A symbol of swagger, of confidence, of Miami football’s take-no-prisoners attitude on the football field.

On Thursday, The U jumped from the football field to an Indianapolis hotel boardroom when University of Miami President Donna Shalala flashed the gesture at reporters while leaving for a break from Miami’s hearing before the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions, as recorded by Manny Navarro of the Miami Herald:

An NCAA investigation of claims by disgraced Miami booster Nevin Shapiro that coaches gave him inside information to help him gamble on football turned up “no concrete evidence” of wrongdoing, according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald:

If Shapiro was getting gambling information from coaches, it was not helping. As Jackson points out, Shapiro has admitted to losing $9 million on sports gambling and paying tens of thousands of dollars to a local handicapper for advice.

The investigator in question, Rich Johanningmeier, is now retired. He met with Dye twice in 2011 to discuss the allegations against Miami. According to the incident report, Johanningmeier used inappropriate tactics during those meetings, going so far as to threaten Dye’s college eligibility:

Coral Gables police have not yet launched an investigation into the allegations alleged by Dye.

State of the U, SB Nation’s Miami blog, finds the news less than amusing.

The investigation into Miami has left the NCAA with quite a bit of egg on its face, and in late March the school filed a motion to have the case dropped. Mark Emmert and the NCAA found that idea to be ridiculous and were just so hurt that the jerks at Miami would be such a bunch of meanies.

Since the news emerged that the NCAA erred in its investigation into the Miami football program with some unethical practices, the school has gone on the offensive, arguing that the whole case should be thrown out. Interim Vice President of Enforcement Jonathan Duncan fired back at the school recently in a 42-page document sent to Britton Banowsky, the chairman of the committee on infractions

“In the enforcement staff’s view, the motions to dismiss are largely based on assumptions, false accusations, misleading statements and meritless claims about the enforcement staff and its investigation,” Duncan wrote.

The University of Miami has filed a motion to have the testimony of former Hurricanes quarterback Kyle Wright dismissed after some dispute over the way his testimony was obtained by the NCAA, according to Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press.

According to the motion, Miami contends that the testimony should not be used due to the questions asked by NCAA Investigator Rich Johanningmeier, who retired in 2012:

The NCAA is entering even hotter water for its handling of its investigation of the University of Miami, reports Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press.

Former investigator Ameen Najjar stated in emails to convicted felon Nevin Shapiro that he had been taken off the case on May 16th, 2012 because the NCAA had not appreciated the way Najjar had approached the case, and subsequently stated that the NCAA was ready to move on. Najjar believed that either the NCAA was trying to meet an arbitrary timeline, or that some people at the top were trying to keep Miami from meeting a harsher judgment.

Najjar had been one of the primary investigators for the NCAA in the Nevin Shapiro case. He stirred controversy by trying to ask questions without the power of subpoena when he hired the bankruptcy attorney for Shapiro. Najjar also wrote to a US District Court judge that Shapiro could be a future consultant for the NCAA based on his early assessment of his character.

Go to State of the U for more coverage of the University of Miami investigation.

The University of Miami is making a move to have its NCAA case dropped, according to Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports. Miami will file a motion with the NCAA to dismiss the two-year old investigation involving former booster Nevin Shapiro.

The school will point to the NCAA’s improper handling of the investigation, per Dodd, as reason for dismissal. The NCAA had already admitted improper payments to Shapiro’s attorney and overstepping its subpoena boundaries, and earlier this week, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported that the organization’s inappropriate behavior in the investigation went further than originally disclosed. In addition to released results from the NCAA’s inquiry into its own investigation, the organization reportedly lied to interviewees, in an attempt to draw incriminating testimony.

ANNOUNCER: ... And now the next case.

BAILIFF: All parties in the matter of Donna vs. Mark, come forward please.

Let’s get right to it.

1. The NCAA’s investigation into extravagant inmate Nevin Shapiro’s involvement with the Miami Hurricanes was derailed by the NCAA’s own investigation, which is the kind of thing that happens to an organization overseen by a horse.

The NCAA’s footing in the University of Miami investigation gets weaker and weaker, as the Miami Herald reports that even more unethical mistakes than previously believed were made by the organization as they attempted to unearth violations -- great news for the school as they try to get the case against them thrown out.

The NCAA has already admitted that it messed up in the Miami case. After unethical conduct was revealed -- mainly revolving around paying witness Nevin Shapiro’s lawyer and overstepping their subpoena boundaries -- the NCAA released a report on their missteps and the association fired its vice president of enforcement. However, they pressed on with the case.

When NCAA interim enforcement director Joe Duncan met with enforcement staff before starting his new job on Monday, he met a group of people both angered and confused by the actions of NCAA president Mark Emmert.

Emotions ran high in that meeting, a source told CBS Sports -- there was shouting, there even was some crying. The members of the enforcement staff believe they’ve been mistreated by Emmert and that their reputation has been damaged to the extent that it will make their jobs more difficult in the future.

The letter, which was written two months before Yahoo!‘s Charles Robinson broke the news of Shapiro’s alleged inappropriate support of Miami Hurricanes athletes, does not specify which schools Shapiro had helped investigate. It was written on NCAA letterhead and signed by Najjar as director of enforcement.

Najjar was prominently involved in the NCAA’s investigation of Miami, and reportedly hired Shapiro’s bankruptcy attorney to ask questions on behalf of the NCAA in an attempt to circumvent the organization’s lack of subpoena power. Miami assistant equipment manager Sean Allen, who CBS Sports identified as Shapiro’s “right-hand man” and who was subpoenaed to testify in Shapiro’s bankruptcy trial, identified Najjar in the courtroom before testifying and asked that he be removed. Even after Najjer’s removal, Allen was asked pointed questions about his role in the Miami program by Shapiro’s attorney as part of that testimony. Najjar was later dismissed by the NCAA while the Miami case was pending for undisclosed reasons.

According to a source in the Associated Press, the NCAA has alleged that Nevin Shapiro paid Miami Hurricanes players, recruits, coaches and other associated parties $170,000 over a nine year period from 2002 to 2010.

Half of that amount was utilized by Shapiro to try and sign Vince Wilfork and Antrell Rolle to a sports agency he had some ties to. Shapiro also spent $56,000 on various other deeds like “meals, entertainment, clothing, jewelry, travel, lodging and cash”. That money was distributed between six dozen Hurricane players, three prospects and a dozen other associates of players and prospects recruited by the University. Additionally, Shapiro provided extra benefits to three Miami assistants.

Shapiro reported to Yahoo Sports that he spent millions of dollars in service of the University, so this appears to be only a fractional amount of the reported transgressions.

Florida State Senator Joe Abruzzo wrote a letter to the state’s Attorney General calling for the state to investigate the NCAA, joining the list of those critical of the notice of allegations the organization delivered to the University of Miami Tuesday night.

Abruzzo, whose district covers much of South Florida’s Palm Beach County, focused on the botched nature of the NCAA’s investigation of the Nevin Shapiro scandal, saying that the association’s payment of one of Nevin Shapiro’s lawyers “abuse(s) the bankruptcy process” and “circumvent(s) the limits of the NCAA’s authority.” In Abruzzo’s eyes, those actions were potentially criminal, and could merit prosecution.

The University of Miami recently received a notice of allegations from the NCAA stemming from the Nevin Shapiro scandal, and school president Donna Shalala has taken a defensive stance, arguing that Miami “has suffered enough.” ACC commissioner John Swofford released a statement in support of Miami’s efforts to resolve the issue:

Miami self-imposed a postseason ban in each of the last two seasons. And Shalala is pulling no punches after it was learned that the investigation into the school had been botched. She has called for no additional punishments, and in a recent statement, she notably wrote that the school hopes “that the Committee on Infractions will provide the fairness and integrity missing during the investigative process.”

Update: It’s a 10.1 violation, or a serious violation of a rule against “unethical conduct,” for allegedly misleading the NCAA’s investigation, Tim Reynolds reports. Jim Tressel is an example of a coach hit with a 10.1.

Former Miami and current Louisville football assistant Clint Hurtt has received a notice of allegations from the NCAA, according to Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports. So did Missouri basketball coach Frank Haith.

The University of Miami was charged with the NCAA’s dreaded “lack of institutional control” charge when given its notice of allegations on Tuesday, an accusation that typically comes with the harshest penalties. The charge isn’t all that uncommon across all NCAA sports, and pops up several times every year. Although the two terms sound similar, “lack of institutional control” is a separate and more serious charge than “failure to monitor,” with the difference being how officials at the university have prepared for and handled situations.

When the NCAA investigates whether or not an institution is lacking control, the focus is on how the officials in charge of compliance at the school are doing their job. The NCAA looks at which rules are in place, and if the rules are properly enforced by compliance officials, according to the University of Illinois.

The University of Miami has reportedly received its notice of allegations from the NCAA, according to a source in the Associated Press. Miami is a private school and can’t be compelled to release the allegations, so the NOA might not be revealed for some time. The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson reports the final punishment could be “more than a slap on the wrist.”

And here’s the worst of it:

As long as the NCAA is predicated on preserving amateurism, it will never have a functional enforcement arm. It says that it’s going to clean up its enforcement department, but that’s a lie. Sure, the names will change, but the bullshit will remain the same.

NCAA investigators don’t have a lot of legal power, so they’re forced to find information through extralegal means. As I noted in my explanation of why the Miami scandal is the NCAA’s worst deed yet, the NCAA doesn’t have subpoena power. That’s good, because as I noted, its rules should not carry the force of law. The problem with that this lack of power is that investigators will always be tempted to push the limits of what they can do. Investigators are a naturally zealous bunch, and that sometimes leads to ignoring the advice of counsel.

The NCAA’s investigation into its Miami investigation has yielded this report, in which it’s revealed “select” NCAA enforcement personnel “knowingly circumvented legal advice,” “violated the internal NCAA policy of legal counsel only being retained and monitored by the legal staff,” and committed other misstakes during its dealings with former Miami booster Nevin Shapiro’s legal counsel (with some of those dealings coming via a disposable phone bought just for the occasion of phoning an inmate), but did not violate any specific bylaws.

In response, Miami president Donna Shalala has called for “a swift resolution, which includes no additional punitive measures beyond those already self-imposed.”