Thursday, August 18, 2011

Mandatory Miami-related reading

A few interesting notes/articles/quotes/tidbits that require minimal insight on my part:

Don't blame Randy Shannon: Randy Shannon's squeaky-clean image is hard to reconcile with what happened at Miami throughout his tenure, but he reportedly did everything within his power to stop it. He refused to associate with Nevin Shapiro in any way and threatened to fire any employee caught in his presence -- the problem is that nobody (including the athletic directors) cared or acknowledged his authority. This is Exhibit A in the argument that there's only so much a coach can do.

The bounties -- all of them: The Seventh Floor Blog has a "complete anthology" of bounties paid out by Nevin Shapiro. Take it FWIW, because there's no documentation or explanation of where the info came from, but it adds up to a little over $20K. My favorite: $500 to Devin Hester for an excessive celebration penalty in Miami's win over Florida in 2003.

The land that shame forgot: This post from Every Day Should Be Saturday was written in September of 2008 yet perfectly summarizes everything about Miami football in an explanatory and existential way. There's a reason these guys were taking money, and it's not the same reason Terrelle Pryor was taking money. Read it.

Miami AD states the obvious: According to athletic director Shawn Eichorn, there are "tough times ahead," which duh. I don't envy his job right now (although I'd settle for his paycheck).

The perfect Luther Campbell response: Original "here's some free stuff" guy Luther Campbell responded to Nevin Shapiro's allegations by saying, "That punk could never be me." If he had just dropped a couple f-bombs, that'd be '80s-era Miami football in a nutshell.

Miami players could be called to bankruptcy court: So it is possible for things to get worse for Miami -- law-talkin' guys are saying that since the players were the ones "lavished" with funds that legally belonged to other people, they could be hit with "clawback" lawsuits and forced to repay as part of the Ponzi scheme settlement. Most of those guys are making bank in the NFL and would probably be fine financially, but settling in court would just give the NCAA another piece of evidence to throw into the War and Peace-sized file on Miami.

Non-denials by the truckload: The Associated Press has assembled a fairly long and extensive list of comments from people named in the Yahoo story. Not a single person has flatly denied the allegations, while everyone seems to be saying something along the lines of "It is what it is, man," and " I am just going to let him do his talking, because to me it is really irrelevant and don't concern me at this point." Interpret that as you will.

Tweet of the year: Courtesy of columnist Chris Dufresne at the L.A. Times: "Breaking News in our dreams: USC AD Pat Haden named chair of NCAA infractions committee that will hear Miami case." Schwing!

Mark Emmert is "fine" with the death penalty: Yes, that's NCAA president Mark Emmert, and yes, he's referring to Miami in an interview with USA Today. Cue ominous version of "Taps."

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