Miami isn’t an SEC school, we know. But as we wrote earlier this week, if any ACC schools begin to worry about the money/prestige that league may stand to lose if the NCAA decimates the Hurricanes’ program, it could destabilize that league. Therefore, Miami’s situation bears watching for SEC fans who are crossing their fingers that an ACC school might pick up the phone and give Mike Slive a ring.
Still, the Canes aren’t in the SEC, so we will keep this short.
Yesterday, the NCAA alerted Miami officials that it will consider invoking its “willful violators” clause. That would allow the NCAA to investigate further back, past the four-year statute of limitations. The NCAA has that power when large patterns of cheating are uncovered.
The NCAA’s decision has led more people to discuss the possibility of a death penalty for The U this morning.
While it’s fun to shout that the latest scandal — whatever it is — is the worst ever, one writer says people trying to compare Miami and SMU are going way overboard. (The Mustangs, of course, are the first and only D1 football program to get the death penalty.)
Richard Justice of The Houston Chronicle was around for the SMU scandal. He knew of the SMU scandal. And (The) U are no SMU scandal:
“As the years unfolded, as reporters dug deeper, we learned SMU was dirty beyond what we suspected. It’s not just that the head coach knew what was going on. Two head coaches knew.
And it wasnt’ just that one assistant coach knew. A whole slew of them knew, some of them stuffing envelopes with cash…
In Miami, one rogue booster appears to have gone wild. Administrators might have looked the other way, and so might have coaches. We might even find that a few coaches knew. But I’m nearly certain the athletic directors didn’t know and the school president didn’t know…
… please don’t compare what happened at Miami to what happened at SMU. SMU go the death penalty because it was place on probation five times in a 13-year period, because even after getting caught, it kept paying players.
And everyone was involved. Coaches. Administrators. Boosters. Politicians.
There have been other dirty programs since SMU got the death penalty in 1987, and there’ll be plenty more. But there hasn’t been another like SMU.
Miami can’t begin to cheat the way SMU cheated.”
Just an interesting read to provide a little perspective.
Also, when I see so many fans across the country calling for the death penalty at Miami, I wonder how many of those same fans would still be calling for the executioner if it were their favorite schools that had been caught doing what Miami’s apparently been caught doing.
I’m not up for defending Miami. Trust me on that one. But I am a fan of keeping things in proper perspective.
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