More news continues coming to the surface regarding the corrupt ways of the NCAA and the lengths this organization was ready to go in order to take down the University of Miami, crippling the athletic department permanently.
The story broke a few days back, but with so much good news surrounding the Miami Hurricanes basketball program and the quest Jim Larranaga and his kids were on to earn that regular season ACC Championship – which they did – it seemed disrespectful and distracting to focus on the dark cloud that is the NCAA and all that’s wrong with that evil bunch.
The NCAA has been hovering over The U for upwards of two years now, so what was a few more days before dissecting another disgusting story about Mark Emmert and his henchmen.
Just under a week ago, it was revealed that the an investigator involved with the NCAA’s inquiry of UM athletics wrote a letter to a judge two years back, on behalf of Nevin Shapiro, who was days from being sentenced. In the letter, the investigator Ameen Najjar – fired last year by the NCAA – went as far as explaining that the his organization could someday hire Shaprio, utilizing the convicted ponzi schemer, “in the future as a consultant and/or speaker to educate our membership”.
Again, Emmert referred to another NCAA black eye as “an embarrassment”.
Fred Grimm of the Miami Herald has written a brilliantly-worded piece on the matter, chock full of quotes from Shapiro victims, in order to show the absurdity of Najjar’s letter – which Grimm points out, proves that the NCAA was bending over backwards to keep Shapiro happy, while pumping him for information.
The NCAA quickly responded to this recent AP finding regarding Najjar’s letter, by stating that, “Nevin Shapiro has not been and will not be a consultant for the NCAA”, which Grimm points out wouldn’t even be a viable option as a consultant since the jailed con-man won’t be released before prison before 2028.
The NCAA investigated itself weeks back after Shaprio attorney Maria Elena Perez proved to be on the payroll, with information from bankruptcy proceedings being used to build the NCAA’s case against UM, yet that 52-page report which detailed this investigation-gone-wrong, mentioned nothing about any letter on Shapiro’s behalf by the since-fired Najjar.
For those keeping score, the NCAA was caught running a dirty investigation. Promised to get to the bottom of things with an internal investigation. Put together a document on said experience and within weeks was again tripped up when old news of deeper corruption has surfaced.
Doesn’t really say much for that internal investigation, or this corrupt, vendetta-fueled organization as a whole.
Gary Ferman of CaneSport reported on Tuesday that the University of Miami is in the process of preparing a 300-page ‘motion to dismiss’ report that it will deliver to the NCAA, in effort to play this properly, while capitalizing on the mistakes and screw ups by college football’s governing body.
What’s in this document one can only imagine, but the takeaway from all this; the University of Miami is rolling up its sleeves and is ready for a fight. The U Family will not roll over.
Time served is what The U is seeking and the more the NCAA continues to show the degree to which this investigation has been botched, the easier it is to believe that things are going to look up for UM sooner than later.
UPDATE : Barry Jackson wrote a detailed piece in Wednesday’s edition of the Miami Herald regarding the strategy the University of Miami plans to take regarding it’s fight, as well as the roadblocks the NCAA is already putting up. He points out that UM isn’t afraid to take this case to court, but is obviously seeing that as a last resort-type thing and is working to get things dismissed before it comes to that. Read on.
Christian Bello has been covering Miami Hurricanes athletics since the mid-1990s. After spending almost a decade as a columnist for CanesTime, he launched allCanesBlog.com. – the official blog for allCanes.com : The #1 Canes Shop Since 1959. Bello has joined up with XOFan.com and will be a guest columnist at CaneInsider.com this fall. Follow him on Twitter @ChristianRBello.