In lieu of my normal Tuesday post “Articles from the ACC Blogosphere”, I have to put together few comments on the staggering list of potential violations committed at University of Miami.
First here is the article at yahoo.sports, titled Renegade Miami football booster spells out illicit benefits to players where you can view the entire investigative report.
We are talking about prostitution, cash payments, parties, strip clubs and on and on and on. The only programs that I can even draw a comparison to what apparently has happened at Miami are the SMU football in the 80s, and the Baylor basketball program from a few years back.
My initial reaction is that this obviously could be devastating to the Miami football and basketball programs. I don’t think you’ll see the death penalty ala SMU, but we could be talking a severe reduction in scholarships, post-season bans, TV bans, vacated wins, with a multi year-probation. Sadly my other thought on this is it is yet another black eye on the ACC. I actually wasn’t too concerned with the possibility of SEC expansion. A week ago I felt the ACC would stay in tact for the time being, but now I don’t know. If you remember it was the NCAA violations at the SMU program that eventually led to the downfall of SWC conference.
Now I realize this is a stretch, but it is something that has to be concern for Commissioner John Swofford. Right or Wrong Georgia Tech is now on 4 years’ probation. North Carolina has already fired their coach and had their AD resign. The NCAA has yet to hand their punishment to the Heels, and now with allegations at Miami, this summer has been a PR mess for the ACC. I’ll be interested to hear Swofford’s comments on the situations, because if there was ever a time for damage control it’s now.
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