What Do UNC Sanctions Mean For UM?

The NCAA finally dropped the hammer on the University of North Carolina this week, regarding a football program that ran amok in recent years.

When the dust finally settled, the Tar Heels were hit with a one-year post-season ban, three years of probation and lost fifteen scholarships. The NCAA committee felt that UNC was responsible for multiple violations, including academic fraud and a failure to monitor its football program.

Furthermore, it also issued a three-year show-cause penalty for former assistant coach John Blake, who had received personal loans from a NFL agent. The show-cause penalty prevents Blake from performing any recruiting duties, which all but prevents him from being able to coach.

Blake had a business relationship with late Gary Wichard, having worked for the one-time NFL agent in between stints at Oklahoma and North Carolina.

That friendship was a large focus of the investigation, as well as the $31,000 that went from Wichard’s bank account, to Blake’s. While that money was said to have been a loan between friends, the NCAA’s belief is that the money was compensation for Blake providing access to NFL-caliber student athletes for Wichard’s firm.

North Carolina attempted to get ahead of the curve, self-punishing before the NCAA had time to fully investigate and hand down punishment. Last September the university vacated all wins for 2008 and 2009, reduced nine scholarships over the next three academic year and put the program on two years of probation.

Still, the NCAA wanted more – and mostly due, it appears, to the Blake dynamic, as a conduit between student athletes at a university and a sports agency looking to represent future NFL talent. The committee referred to this aspect of the case as “a cautionary tale” in regards to monitoring top professional prospects.

Fourteen Tar Heels missed at least one game in 2010 and seven were forced to sit out the entire season, with four of those either dismissed from the team or ruled permanently ineligible by the NCAA. Three of those players were eventually chosen in the first two rounds of last year’s NFL Draft — defensive end Robert Quinn, defensive tackle Marvin Austin and wide receiver Greg Little.

There was also the charge of “unethical conduct”, regarding Blake’s actions, as well as former tutor Jennifer Wiley, who provided several players with too much assistance on research papers, as well as over $4,000 worth of improper benefits in travel, parking expenses and free tutoring. The NCAA didn’t include any additional sanctions against Wiley, though.

When you really put this case under a microscope, North Carolina fell hard because of the premise that Blake was funneling players to a professional sports agent — which makes this case much different from what took place at the University of Miami regarding a rogue booster who allegedly spread some dollars around to then-players.

The NCAA seems hell-bent on two things; recruits coming in and highly-touted upperclassmen not behaving like professionals before their student athlete days are over.

When you look at last year’s suspensions at Miami, who were the heavy hitters? Defensive lineman Olivier Vernon missed six games because there was talk of money exchanging hands when he was still in high school and being recruited by UM.

The next group of multiple-game suspensions was four games each for safety Ray-Ray Armstrong and tight end Dyron Dye, who allegedly were wined, dined and taken to a strip club on a recruiting trip.

From there, one-game suspensions for quarterback Jacory Harris, defensive linemen Marcus Forston and Adewale Ojomo, linebacker Sean Spence and wide receiver Travis Benjamin – all who took minimally and were forced to repay financially.

On the hardwood, Miami saw three role players missing action this season. DeQuan Jones was originally ruled ineligible for the season as he was rumored to have been paid $10,000 in the recruiting process.

By mid-December the NCAA had concluded their investigation and found no wrongdoing, but the damage was done regarding a crucial stretch of the season where Miami lost four of five, all big time out of conference games – Ole Miss, Purdue, Memphis and West Virginia – that hurt UM’s RPI and kept the Canes from making the NCAA Tournament.

Miami also lost center Reggie Johnson late in the year for one game – a similar punishment as the five football Canes who sat a game and had to pay back what was improperly taken – while starting guard Durand Scott was recently suspended indefinitely, starting with a crucial ACC Tournament game against Florida State (Miami lost, 82-71). That punishment has since been upgraded to six total games, as well as paying back the value of the benefits received.

When dealing with the NCAA, you never want to compare cases as there are so many intangibles. Still, regarding Miami, there were no North Carolina-like suspensions. No player deemed permanently ineligible. No one dismissed from the program for their actions. Nevin Shapiro had some wild allegations, which stole headlines and forced a lot of outsiders to shake their heads and rush to judgment, but when properly investigated, the punishments seem to have fit the crime.

Miami has been an open book throughout the investigation – and has also played the game as well as anyone could’ve hoped. Cooperation with the NCAA was the MO from day one and from there, it seemed UM has made all the right moves. Starting with suspending football players before last year’s opener and everything in-between.

In late December the university paid back $83,000 it said it received “directly and indirectly” from Shapiro. The money was paid to bankruptcy trustee Joel Tabas, who is overseeing an effort to recoup money that Shapiro investors lost.

A few weeks prior, Miami announced that it would forego a post-season berth, giving up a bowl game, in good faith — something both North Carolina and Ohio State failed to do and something the NCAA eventually did for both, as each program is banned from the 2012 post-season.

There’s an x-factor in the equation here and that’s UM president Donna Shalala, who is leaning on her days in politics as she orchestrates Miami through this rocky terrain.

From the moment the Shapiro story broke, every move has been well-calculated on UM’s part. Working with the NCAA to right these wrongs – that was always the goal. It wasn’t about fighting back or being overprotective. Shalala opened the books, invited investigators in and made sure the university cooperated fully – to the point where NCAA president Mark Emmert even praised Shalala and Miami in the midst of the investigation – which was out of character for the usually tightly-lipped NCAA.

You don’t succeed in politics without being sharp, calculated and in some ways, cunning. It’s a game of relationship-building and operating under the “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” way of doing business.

Safe to assume that in her day Shalala doled out a lot of favors and stockpiled many, too. This is a former Presidential Cabinet member and a successful attorney – not your standard, rah-rah, egotistical university president, unsure how to navigate out of sticky situations. Same with Emmert, who sees the bigger picture here.

When this all washes out, there will be punishment for Miami — but there’s also the opportunity for Emmert to use UM as an example for how to cooperate during an NCAA investigation. Where others resisted, Miami played the role to perfection, offering a mea culpa and turning over the books, in effort to right the wrongs.

Being transparent, fully cooperating in the investigation and never shying from the issues at hand — that should absolutely work in UM’s favor when a ruling is handed down. As will the types of allegations, in comparison. The hot-button topic regarding North Carolina was everything Blake-related and nothing of that nature appears to be the case at Miami.

“The U” is far from out of the woods, but the way Miami is handling things – as well as the Shalala factor – could go a long way in determining the severity of the punishment, when it’s eventually handed down. – C.B.

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