The man who was in charge of the NCAA committee that slapped near-historic sanctions on the USC football program in 2010 has died, multiple media outlets in the Miami are reporting.
The University of Miami confirmed to the Miami Herald that Paul Dee died over the weekend. The paper wrote that the 65-year-old Dee had been hospitalized recently for cancer treatment, although no cause of death was given.
Dee served as athletic director at Miami from 1993 through 2008. After that he moved on to the NCAA, and served on the Committee on Infractions.
“The entire University of Miami community is saddened by the loss of Paul Dee,” said president Donna Shalala in a statement. “A proud alumnus, he will be remembered for his distinguished career and service to the University as Vice President and General Counsel, Director of Hurricane Athletics and a member of the School of Education faculty.”
“We lost a teacher, leader, friend and a truly loyal man today,” said athletic director Shawn Eichorst. “Paul Dee devoted every ounce of energy and passion to the University of Miami over many, many years. The Hurricane family sends its condolences and grieves along with his family and friends.”
While Dee and his committee hammered USC over the Reggie Bush imbroglio while he was the committee’s chairman, he was also the athletic director at a university -- Miami -- during the time period in which a booster is accused of giving millions of dollars in impermissible benefits and for which the football and basketball programs are currently under the NCAA infractions microscope.
“High-profile athletes demand high-profile compliance,” Dee infamously said two years ago, albeit in reference to the USC case and not his own troubled -- and former -- athletic programs.
“If the allegations prove true, the words irony and hypocrisy don’t seem to go far enough,” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott was quoted as saying when the Nevin Shapiro allegations against Miami surfaced.
Our condolences go out to Dee’s family and friends on his passing.