The interminable investigation into the Miami Hurricanes and a rogue booster may be set to take its next major step, multiple media outlets are reporting.
According to both the Associated Press and CaneInsider.com, the NCAA’s probe into the Miami football program is on the verge of completion, with the former reporting that “the NCAA is scheduling meetings to discuss specific allegations with individuals who are believed to have committed violations found during the inquiry"; some of those are scheduled for Monday. The latter website reports that a Notice of Allegations could be sent to the school within the next 72 hours.
Regardless of when Miami actually receives the NOA, the school would have three months to respond to the allegations found during the course of what’s been a nearly two-year-long investigation. A finding, including official sanctions, could come early in the summer.
Miami has already self-imposed sanctions, including banning the football program from postseason play the past two seasons. Multiple players were suspended in 2011 for a various amount of games as well.
The investigation centered on convicted felon and Ponzi schemer Nevin Shapiro, who allegedly lavished millions of dollars in impermissible benefits on, among others at the school, football players. In February, Shapiro, apparently agitated over nearly four dozen individuals connected to The U were lined up to testify against him in his federal trial, promised to take “that program down to Chinatown” and that the Miami story will become “an urban legend” before it’s all said and done.
Shapiro was ultimately sentenced to 20 years in prison for orchestrating what was in the neighborhood of a $1 billion Ponzi scheme.
In August of 2010, it was reported that Shapiro was writing a tell-all book in which he would allege he aided multiple Hurricanes players and potential recruits -- as well as at least one member of the coaching staff -- commit major NCAA violations related to impermissible benefits. Another report surfaced a year later that the NCAA was looking to gain more knowledge of the situation.