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Let’s look at the “penalties” one by one…

Reduction in scholarships, 5 per year for each of the next 3 years — any idea how many “scholarship players” never break a sweat on any given Saturday? This actually saves the school money, from which they can pay…

$50,000 in fines — seriously (?), for a sports program (don’t forget basketball) that generates millions annually, this amounts to a rounding error on their financial statement.

Three (3) years probation — arguably one of the most useless penalties of all; a proverbial slap on the wrist that says “please don’t do this again or we’ll be forced to actually impose a penalty that means something”.

Vacate their wins from the 2008-2009 season — considering that Davis went 12-23 in his 4 seasons there, who’s going to notice?

One year post-season ban — considering UNC has LOST 4 of their last 5 bowl games and had 3 recent seasons without even going to one, the more appropriate penalty might have been to force them to endure another bowl game.

CONCLUSION — slap on the wrist…

1) If a coach on staff was involved in deliberately misleading the NCAA, they’re getting the hammer. Todd McNair (1 yr), Tressel (5 yr), and Blake (3 yr) are pretty much blackballed from coaching collegiate football again.

2) Cooperation seems to be the difference-maker in how many ‘ships are lost — once you’re into “major infraction” territory, it doesn’t seem like they split hairs on whether it was tattoos or agents or runners on staff. USC (30/3) was notoriously uncooperative with the NCAA. Blake and the tutor (UNC, 15/3) were called out for not cooperating, while OSU (9/3) seemed to cooperate the most. USC got whacked hard (harder than I thought was fair), but I don’t think it was out of nowhere. USC practically set the runway lights up in the shape of a giant middle finger when that plane from Indy was descending. This is just a rumor, but I heard Mike Garrett went so far as to piss all over the investigator’s shoes when they met in the restroom.

USC fans should be mad as all hell at Reggie Bush. Beyond everything that happened, USC would have walked free if that dumbass hadn’t *literally* made a federal case out of it. Stonewalling the NCAA was working well until the FBI got involved and handed the tapes over to the NCAA. In light of how things played out, I can’t say I’m surprised USC was hit so hard.

(*note: these are the allegations the NCAA has made *after* investigating and believes to have merit…not allegations from people with little to no knowledge)

My bad. I still think the Death Penalty is a ridiculous notion even IF all that jock sniffer on steroids was saying is true. SMU got the death penalty for having a designated slush fund, sanctioned by the University to pay players to play at SMU.

Shapiro in all his wild imagination is not even close to that, though judging by the type of guy he is, I wouldn’t be suprised he would LOVE to have his name mentioned next to SMU in NCAA football lore.

I’m trying to figure out which part of my post you disagree with. All did was say IF the most egregious allegations could be proven then Miami would likely get heavier sanctions than those levied at USC. (And yes, if they can prove that U players were being paid money to intentionally injure opponents and the coaching staff either knew or should have known about it then the death penalty is completely appropriate.)

And for the record, I noted in my post that right now all we are relying on is the word of a man with no credibility and nothing to lose by lying.

First off, the ONLY source for 90% of the yahoo hit piece was Shapira. A convicted felon in jail for a nearly billion dollar ponzi scheme (liar). He also admits to having an axe to grind with UM.

So as to the other 10% of yahoo’s crap journalism that has uninformed people like you two calling for the death penalty?!?!? What????

USC and OSU had institutional problems with HEAD COACHES. That is a huge problem. UNC had assistants on the current staff at the time of investigation. UM has a former football assistant and former Head Bball coach. In both cases Shapiro is the ONLY SOURCE and the basketball one has been proven false and the player is on the current roster.

UM has already imposed suspensions on players. None of which was the entire season like UNC. In fact UMs situation is much closer to the Boise St. situation, which I assume neither of you know about. The worst player from Boise took over $1,000….as did the worst at UM (O.Vernon six games). Now you tell me which is worse a grand in Idaho or a grand on South Beach???? I mean shouldn’t that be factored in???

USC was on sanctions and committed huge violations that were confirmed by multiple sources while others filed in court not to talk. They had star players Mayo and Bush getting PAID by AGENTS….even a house was given to Bush. Even IF all the stuff Shapiro said were true it doesn’t come close to what USC was doing…while already on sanctions.

UNC, OSU and USC are all worse than UM in lack of institutional control and benefits received by players.

Now I am not saying UM didn’t do anything wrong. They have already suspended players and self imposed a bowl ban.

But it would not be a tragedy if they got less of a penalty then UNC, USC and OSU, as you all seem to be saying.

I know the Yahoo hit piece had a lot of flash, but it was irresponsible and put UM and the NCAA in a crappy spot since it relied almost entirely on a convicted felon singing a jail bird tune for its source. The yahoo piece is crap journalism, NOT an official investigation.

If the investigators can prove (most) of what Shapiro is claiming they will get the most severe punishment since SMU, if they can’t they may get away without any sanctions.

re: Miami getting off light

If what Shapiro is claiming is anything close to the truth (and given his history that isn’t exactly a safe assumption) then I don’t see how they get off lightly. Not only will they have committed major violations in two sports, but the bounty payments for injuring opponents could well get them the death penalty.

SC, USC always = Univ Southern California.

… additionaly, re: USC’s 2 year bowl ban, loss fo 30 schollies, 4 yrs probabtion….. those penalties were assessed against USC after the NCAA COI released the original assessment with penalties and some folks in the NCAA member schools, which I don’t need to mentioned because you know who the whiners are, complained that the penalties weren’t harsh enough. Theses conf commissioners and schools were the same schools/conferences that couldn’t beat USC back in the PC days.

With that said, UNC got off easy, as will Miami, as Ohio State did, South Carolina will get off easy… no shcool will be hit with the level and severity of the USC penalties again.

Remember the goal of the NCAA COI leadership of Paul Dee, the ex-Miami AD who authroized all ofd the Miami problems that they’re facing today, tried to shutdown the USC program without being the bad guy. Yes, USC slowed down a bit, but was never out fo the game, and now for the 2012 season, USC is looking to be preseason #1 or #2. If USC wasn’t bowl game sanctioned this past season and there was a playoff in place, USC could’ve beaten everyone ranked ahead of them in the AP Poll. USC finished the season so strong, as did most of the PC teams, that they certainly were strong enough to have taken out Alabama, LSU, OK State, Oregon and Stanford in post-season play. But I digress…. UNC got off easy. Enjoy it.

That’s the NCAA for you, rarely does anything they do make sense.