2011 University of Miami athletics scandal
Encyclopedia
In 2011, the University of Miami
Hurricanes football
and men's basketball programs were investigated for NCAA rules violations alleged to have taken place from 2002 to 2010, centering around improper benefits given by booster Nevin Shapiro
, and reported by investigative reporters at Yahoo! Sports
.
reported that 2 Live Crew
member Luther Campbell
and several NFL players had offered a "pay-for-play" system from 1986 through 1992, giving cash rewards for acts such as scoring touchdowns and big hits. This allegation was verified in the subsequent NCAA investigation, which also found that the "head football coach and the associate director of athletics
for compliance and internal operations were aware" of the payments.
Also in 1994, former University of Miami academic advisor Tony Russell pled guilty to helping 57 football players and more than 23 other scholarship athletes in falsifying applications for Pell Grants. From 1989 to 1992, Russell helped players receive more than $220,000 of grants, which federal officials later called "perhaps the largest centralized fraud ... ever committed" against the Pell Grant program. As a result of the scandal, Alexander Wolff
wrote a Sports Illustrated
cover story suggesting Miami should temporarily shutter the football program and that athletic director Paul Dee
should be fired.
In 1995, the NCAA announced that the University of Miami had also provided or allowed "more than $412,000 of excessive aid" to student-athletes between 1990 and 1994, failed to implement its drug testing program, and lost institutional control over the football program. That December the NCAA announced that Miami's multiple infractions would result in severe sanctions, including a one-year ban from postseason play and a 31-scholarship reduction from 1996 to 1999. In addition to the football team, the violations also involved Miami's baseball
, men's tennis, and women's golf teams.
in 1969, Shapiro's family moved to south Florida when he was young, and he graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School. Some time between 1999 and 2003, under the cover of a grocery business called Capitol Investments USA, Shapiro operated a $930 million Ponzi scheme
, which eventually collapsed in November 2009. In April 21, 2010 he was charged in New Jersey with securities fraud
and money laundering
, and he pled guilty to one count of each on September 15, 2010. On June 7, 2011, he was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison and ordered to make $82,657,362.29 in restitution.
In 2002 he paid $1.5 million for 30 percent in a sports management company called Axcess Sports, which had been started by Michael Huyghue
. The agency signed several Hurricanes including Vince Wilfork
.
Shapiro was a major booster of the Miami Hurricanes athletic programs, and reportedly spent $2 million from 2002 to 2010 in support primarily of the football team, and also of the men's basketball team. In August 2010 Shapiro told The Miami Herald
that he was writing a book The Real U: 2001 to 2010. Inside the Eye of the Hurricane in which he promised to tell how Miami had violated NCAA rules affecting more than 100 players. "Once the players turned pro, they turned their back on me. It made me feel like a used friend," he said. On August 16, 2011, Yahoo! Sports
writer Charles Robinson published an article based on 100 hours of jailhouse interviews with Shapiro, detailing Shapiro's allegations regarding his illegal and unethical behaviors and the lack of oversight in the University of Miami athletics department.
, convicted of securities fraud
and money laundering
from a Ponzi scheme
in 2010, used investor funds to finance donations to the University of Miami's athletic program, and gave an estimated $2 million in prohibited benefits to at least 72 current or former football/basketball players and coaches from 2002 to 2010. The report alleges that Shapiro, through his donations, violated at least four major NCAA bylaws:
Shapiro saw his involvement as a direct continuation of Luther Campbell's activities. In an interview with Yahoo! Sports
, he explained:
, as a result of the investigation. The school then petitioned the NCAA for reinstatement of at least some of the players involved. The following day, head coach Al Golden confirmed these reports, though not naming any players or indicating the number of reinstatements sought. Under NCAA rules, these players were still allowed to practice until the NCAA notified Miami about its decisions. Depending on the scale of each player's violations, penalties may include sanctions that do not require missing games, suspension for a fixed number of games, or permanent ineligibility. The school began the process in hopes that the NCAA would make its decisions on all players before the Hurricanes'
season opener at Maryland
on September 5.
On August 30, the NCAA announced the results of Miami's petition. It cleared one of the named players, Marcus Robinson, but found that the other 12 had received impermissible benefits. All of these players were required to make restitution before being reinstated. Four who were found to have received less than $100 were not suspended, and would be eligible to play once certified as having made restitution. The three who drew the longest suspensions accepted gifts from Shapiro during their recruitment, and had received the greatest amount of improper benefits among the group.
, whose term as University of Miami athletic director
from 1993 through 2008 encompassed both the current scandal and the violations uncovered in 1995, came in for heavy criticism. Sports Illustrated
s Stewart Mandel summed up Dee's involvement as follows:
According to NCAA President Mark Emmert, the NCAA began investigating the situation "four or five months" prior to the publication of Robinson's article, and NCAA investigators had conducted multiple interviews with Shapiro.
Many sportswriters, including Charles Robinson and Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports
, have speculated that if the allegations are found to be true, the Hurricanes may face the "NCAA death penalty", which was last given to a major program in 1987 when the SMU Mustangs
had their football season cancelled
. According to the NCAA, "A school is a repeat violator if a second major violation occurs within five years of the start date of the penalty from the first case. The cases do not have to be in the same sport." According to several sources at Miami, the NCAA has begun investigating for a "pattern of willful violations," which would allow it to investigate back to the date the earliest infractions occurred. The violations would overlap with the Hurricanes baseball team
's two-year probation from 2003 to 2005, which would make the football and basketball teams eligible for the "death penalty." However, NCAA Vice President for Enforcement Julie Roe Lach has said discussion about using the death penalty has been limited.
Wolff, who had suggested in 1995 that the Miami football program should be shuttered, again called for Miami to temporarily drop football in an open letter to university president Donna Shalala
published in the August 29, 2011 issue of Sports Illustrated. In the letter, Wolff noted that Dan Wetzel had described the Miami program as a "de facto professional team" run by Shapiro, but that no NFL owner, in contrast to Shapiro, would have "stocked hotel rooms and his own yacht with prostitutes and strippers for players' pleasure and sprung for an abortion when one of the women got pregnant."
On November 20, Miami announced that it was withdrawing from bowl consideration for the 2011 season due to the ongoing NCAA probe.
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
Hurricanes football
Miami Hurricanes football
The Miami Hurricanes football program competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference of the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision for the University of Miami. The program began in 1926 and has won five AP national championships...
and men's basketball programs were investigated for NCAA rules violations alleged to have taken place from 2002 to 2010, centering around improper benefits given by booster Nevin Shapiro
Nevin Shapiro
Nevin Shapiro is a former University of Miami football booster who is currently imprisoned for orchestrating a $930 million Ponzi scheme. According to interviews, he engaged in rampant violations of NCAA rules over eight years as a booster for University of Miami athletes...
, and reported by investigative reporters at Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports was launched on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from STATS, Inc., employs various writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American sport...
.
Past scandals
The Miami Hurricanes, particularly the football team, have experienced a number of past scandals. In 1994, The Miami HeraldThe Miami Herald
The Miami Herald is a daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company headquartered on Biscayne Bay in the Omni district of Downtown Miami, Florida, United States...
reported that 2 Live Crew
2 Live Crew
2 Live Crew was a hip hop group from Miami, Florida. They caused considerable controversy with the sexual themes in their work, particularly on their 1989 album As Nasty As They Wanna Be.- Early career :...
member Luther Campbell
Luther Campbell
Luther R. Campbell , also known as Luke Skyywalker, Uncle Luke or Luke, is a record label owner, rap performer , and actor...
and several NFL players had offered a "pay-for-play" system from 1986 through 1992, giving cash rewards for acts such as scoring touchdowns and big hits. This allegation was verified in the subsequent NCAA investigation, which also found that the "head football coach and the associate director of athletics
for compliance and internal operations were aware" of the payments.
Also in 1994, former University of Miami academic advisor Tony Russell pled guilty to helping 57 football players and more than 23 other scholarship athletes in falsifying applications for Pell Grants. From 1989 to 1992, Russell helped players receive more than $220,000 of grants, which federal officials later called "perhaps the largest centralized fraud ... ever committed" against the Pell Grant program. As a result of the scandal, Alexander Wolff
Alexander Wolff
Alexander Wolff is a writer for Sports Illustrated and former owner of the Vermont Frost Heaves of the Premier Basketball League .He has written several books about basketball, among them Big Game, Small World , a look at basketball around the world...
wrote a Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
cover story suggesting Miami should temporarily shutter the football program and that athletic director Paul Dee
Paul Dee
Paul Dee is the former General Counsel and Athletic Director of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. He held the position of AD from 1993 until 2008, when he stepped down and Kirby Hocutt was tabbed as his replacement....
should be fired.
In 1995, the NCAA announced that the University of Miami had also provided or allowed "more than $412,000 of excessive aid" to student-athletes between 1990 and 1994, failed to implement its drug testing program, and lost institutional control over the football program. That December the NCAA announced that Miami's multiple infractions would result in severe sanctions, including a one-year ban from postseason play and a 31-scholarship reduction from 1996 to 1999. In addition to the football team, the violations also involved Miami's baseball
Miami Hurricanes baseball
The Miami Hurricanes baseball team is the college baseball program that represents the University of Miami.Since 1973, the program has been one of college baseball's elite with 23 College World Series appearances, winning four national championships and advancing to the NCAA regionals a record 39...
, men's tennis, and women's golf teams.
Nevin Shapiro
Born in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
in 1969, Shapiro's family moved to south Florida when he was young, and he graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School. Some time between 1999 and 2003, under the cover of a grocery business called Capitol Investments USA, Shapiro operated a $930 million Ponzi scheme
Ponzi scheme
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation...
, which eventually collapsed in November 2009. In April 21, 2010 he was charged in New Jersey with securities fraud
Securities fraud
Securities fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud, is a practice that induces investors to make purchase or sale decisions on the basis of false information, frequently resulting in losses, in violation of the securities laws....
and money laundering
Money laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
, and he pled guilty to one count of each on September 15, 2010. On June 7, 2011, he was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison and ordered to make $82,657,362.29 in restitution.
In 2002 he paid $1.5 million for 30 percent in a sports management company called Axcess Sports, which had been started by Michael Huyghue
Michael Huyghue
Michael L. Huyghue is a sports lawyer and businessman who is the current commissioner of the new United Football League, having served in that capacity since the league's founding in 2007. He was previously a member of the legal department of the NFL Players Association before joining the NFL...
. The agency signed several Hurricanes including Vince Wilfork
Vince Wilfork
-2004–06 seasons:The Patriots drafted Wilfork with the 21st overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft. In his rookie 2004 season with the Patriots, he compiled two sacks, 42 tackles, and three deflected passes...
.
Shapiro was a major booster of the Miami Hurricanes athletic programs, and reportedly spent $2 million from 2002 to 2010 in support primarily of the football team, and also of the men's basketball team. In August 2010 Shapiro told The Miami Herald
The Miami Herald
The Miami Herald is a daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company headquartered on Biscayne Bay in the Omni district of Downtown Miami, Florida, United States...
that he was writing a book The Real U: 2001 to 2010. Inside the Eye of the Hurricane in which he promised to tell how Miami had violated NCAA rules affecting more than 100 players. "Once the players turned pro, they turned their back on me. It made me feel like a used friend," he said. On August 16, 2011, Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports was launched on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from STATS, Inc., employs various writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American sport...
writer Charles Robinson published an article based on 100 hours of jailhouse interviews with Shapiro, detailing Shapiro's allegations regarding his illegal and unethical behaviors and the lack of oversight in the University of Miami athletics department.
Allegations
Miami booster Nevin ShapiroNevin Shapiro
Nevin Shapiro is a former University of Miami football booster who is currently imprisoned for orchestrating a $930 million Ponzi scheme. According to interviews, he engaged in rampant violations of NCAA rules over eight years as a booster for University of Miami athletes...
, convicted of securities fraud
Securities fraud
Securities fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud, is a practice that induces investors to make purchase or sale decisions on the basis of false information, frequently resulting in losses, in violation of the securities laws....
and money laundering
Money laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
from a Ponzi scheme
Ponzi scheme
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation...
in 2010, used investor funds to finance donations to the University of Miami's athletic program, and gave an estimated $2 million in prohibited benefits to at least 72 current or former football/basketball players and coaches from 2002 to 2010. The report alleges that Shapiro, through his donations, violated at least four major NCAA bylaws:
- Bylaw 11, involving impermissible compensation to coaches;
- Bylaw 12, involving amateurism of athletes;
- Bylaw 13, involving improper recruiting activity; and
- Bylaw 16, involving extra benefits to athletes.
Shapiro saw his involvement as a direct continuation of Luther Campbell's activities. In an interview with Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports was launched on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from STATS, Inc., employs various writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American sport...
, he explained:
Here’s the thing: Luther CampbellLuther CampbellLuther R. Campbell , also known as Luke Skyywalker, Uncle Luke or Luke, is a record label owner, rap performer , and actor...
was the first uncle who took care of players before I got going. His role was diminished by the NCAA and the school, and someone needed to pick up that mantle. That someone was me. He was ‘Uncle Luke,’ and I became ‘Little Luke.’
NCAA sanctions on players
On August 25, media reports indicated that Miami had declared as many as 13 current football players ineligible, including projected starting quarterback Jacory HarrisJacory Harris
Jacory Sherrod Harris is an American football quarterback, in very loose terms, who played for the University of Miami Hurricanes....
, as a result of the investigation. The school then petitioned the NCAA for reinstatement of at least some of the players involved. The following day, head coach Al Golden confirmed these reports, though not naming any players or indicating the number of reinstatements sought. Under NCAA rules, these players were still allowed to practice until the NCAA notified Miami about its decisions. Depending on the scale of each player's violations, penalties may include sanctions that do not require missing games, suspension for a fixed number of games, or permanent ineligibility. The school began the process in hopes that the NCAA would make its decisions on all players before the Hurricanes'
2011 Miami Hurricanes football team
The 2011 Miami Hurricanes football team represents the University of Miami during the 2011 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Hurricanes are led by first year head coach Al Golden and play their home games at Sun Life Stadium...
season opener at Maryland
2011 Maryland Terrapins football team
The 2011 Maryland Terrapins football team represented the University of Maryland in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football season...
on September 5.
On August 30, the NCAA announced the results of Miami's petition. It cleared one of the named players, Marcus Robinson, but found that the other 12 had received impermissible benefits. All of these players were required to make restitution before being reinstated. Four who were found to have received less than $100 were not suspended, and would be eligible to play once certified as having made restitution. The three who drew the longest suspensions accepted gifts from Shapiro during their recruitment, and had received the greatest amount of improper benefits among the group.
- Brandon McGee, JoJo Nicholas, Micanor Regis, Vaughn TelemaqueVaughn TelemaqueVaughn Telemaque is an American football safety. He currently attends the University of Miami in his sophomore year.-High school career:...
— No suspension - Travis Benjamin, Marcus ForstonMarcus ForstonMarcus Forston is an American football defensive tackle. He currently attends the University of Miami in his junior year. Forston was considered one of the best defensive tackles coming out of high school in 2008, and has been compared to Warren Sapp...
, Jacory Harris, Adewale Ojomo, Sean SpenceSean SpenceSean Spence is an American football linebacker at the University of Miami. He is in his senior year. Spence was named 2008 Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Rookie of the Year.-High school career:...
— Suspended 1 game - Ray-Ray ArmstrongRay-Ray ArmstrongRay-Ray Armstrong is an American football safety for the Miami Hurricanes. Armstrong is considered one of the best safeties in country and is considered a future high NFL Draft pick.-Early years:...
, Dyron Dye — Suspended 4 games - Olivier Vernon — Suspended 6 games
Reaction
Due to the nature of the allegations and the prominence of the Miami Hurricanes football team, as well as the history of scandals surrounding the program, reactions to the expose were rapid. Paul DeePaul Dee
Paul Dee is the former General Counsel and Athletic Director of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. He held the position of AD from 1993 until 2008, when he stepped down and Kirby Hocutt was tabbed as his replacement....
, whose term as University of Miami athletic director
Athletic director
An athletic director is an administrator at many American colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and related staff involved in intercollegiate or interscholastic athletic programs...
from 1993 through 2008 encompassed both the current scandal and the violations uncovered in 1995, came in for heavy criticism. Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
s Stewart Mandel summed up Dee's involvement as follows:
Dee, you may recall, was the Committee on Infractions chairman for USC's much-publicized case last summer involving former stars Reggie BushReggie BushReginald Alfred "Reggie" Bush II is an American football running back for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League. He was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the 2006 NFL Draft...
and O.J. Mayo. It was Dee who, in announcing some of the stiffest penalties of the last 20 years (a two-year bowl ban and 30 docked scholarships), closed with the preachy reminder that "high-profile athletes demand high-profile compliance". Dee, Miami's AD during most of the period covering Shapiro's allegations, is retired and no longer under NCAA jurisdiction. Still, it seems only fair he should spend a day at USC's Heritage Hall wearing a sandwich board with the word "Hypocrite."
According to NCAA President Mark Emmert, the NCAA began investigating the situation "four or five months" prior to the publication of Robinson's article, and NCAA investigators had conducted multiple interviews with Shapiro.
Many sportswriters, including Charles Robinson and Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports was launched on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from STATS, Inc., employs various writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American sport...
, have speculated that if the allegations are found to be true, the Hurricanes may face the "NCAA death penalty", which was last given to a major program in 1987 when the SMU Mustangs
SMU Mustangs football
The SMU Mustangs football program is a college football team that represents Southern Methodist University . The team competes in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision as a member Conference USA...
had their football season cancelled
Southern Methodist University football scandal
The Southern Methodist University football scandal was an incident in which the football program at Southern Methodist University was investigated and punished for massive violations of NCAA rules and regulations. The most serious violation was the maintenance of a slush fund used for "under the...
. According to the NCAA, "A school is a repeat violator if a second major violation occurs within five years of the start date of the penalty from the first case. The cases do not have to be in the same sport." According to several sources at Miami, the NCAA has begun investigating for a "pattern of willful violations," which would allow it to investigate back to the date the earliest infractions occurred. The violations would overlap with the Hurricanes baseball team
Miami Hurricanes baseball
The Miami Hurricanes baseball team is the college baseball program that represents the University of Miami.Since 1973, the program has been one of college baseball's elite with 23 College World Series appearances, winning four national championships and advancing to the NCAA regionals a record 39...
's two-year probation from 2003 to 2005, which would make the football and basketball teams eligible for the "death penalty." However, NCAA Vice President for Enforcement Julie Roe Lach has said discussion about using the death penalty has been limited.
Wolff, who had suggested in 1995 that the Miami football program should be shuttered, again called for Miami to temporarily drop football in an open letter to university president Donna Shalala
Donna Shalala
Donna Edna Shalala served for eight years as Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton and has been president of the University of Miami, a private university in Coral Gables, Florida, since 2001. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest...
published in the August 29, 2011 issue of Sports Illustrated. In the letter, Wolff noted that Dan Wetzel had described the Miami program as a "de facto professional team" run by Shapiro, but that no NFL owner, in contrast to Shapiro, would have "stocked hotel rooms and his own yacht with prostitutes and strippers for players' pleasure and sprung for an abortion when one of the women got pregnant."
On November 20, Miami announced that it was withdrawing from bowl consideration for the 2011 season due to the ongoing NCAA probe.