# HUGE allegations against the University of Miami football program **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 17, 2011, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-allegations-against-the-university-of-miami-football-program/592984 "2011-08-17T02:53:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-allegations-against-the-university-of-miami-football-program/592984/61 "2011-08-21T00:47:50Z")
> [@Cyberhwk](#): > > People have always said the NCAA doesn’t have the balls to give another program the Death Penalty and I don’t think that changes here. Then the scandals become endemic. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-allegations-against-the-university-of-miami-football-program/592984/62 "2011-08-21T11:10:57Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Then the scandals become endemic. I’m thinking that train has at least warmed up, loaded passengers and released the brakes. Assuming it hasn’t already left the station altogether. ---
**Author:** ![markdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-allegations-against-the-university-of-miami-football-program/592984/63 "2011-08-21T14:38:10Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > I’m thinking that train has at least warmed up, loaded passengers and released the brakes. Assuming it hasn’t already left the station altogether. It’s a tough situation. Star athletes in other sports have opportunities to cash in well before they’ve completed their 3rd year of college (the earliest time college football players can declare for the draft). Baseball players can enter the draft directly out of high school, and basketball players can either put in a year in college and then declare, or go directly from high school to overseas basketball and then enter the draft a year later. The problem for football is that there’s no overseas or minor league to play in, and the players are not even eligible to be drafted for three full years after graduating high school. I’m not sure what the solution is, but it seems that there’s a giant hole in the market where a post-high school, pre-NFL paid league would fit quite nicely. You could pay those players who aren’t interested in attending college, which could make up a large portion of top players (IMHO). Whether such a league would be watchable, economically feasible or practical is another matter entirely. It’s just dumb that you have adults who cannot cash in on their trade because there is only one employer for that trade in the entire world and they have put up stiff barriers to entry. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-allegations-against-the-university-of-miami-football-program/592984/64 "2011-08-21T15:03:47Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Then the scandals become endemic. They already are. When SMU got the Death Penalty they could have given it to a handful of other schools in the Southwest Conference and a bunch of other schools in other conferences. As for deterrence, Kentucky basketball almost got one in 1992 and Alabama football could have gotten one in the '90s. The NCAA is broken. It’s that simple. For them to regain control they’d have to drop the hammer on so many teams that they’d severely damage college football as a whole. [I’m kind of partial to the view that they need to cancel college football for an entire season, put the hit on everybody, to get the point across](http://memphisport.com/2011/08/university-of-ncaa-receives-the-death-penalty/). But there’s no way they’ll kill that cash cow. Like I said in the thread about whether or not Miami should get the Death Penalty, the NCAA has no principles or convictions, they act only when they have to. If this story hadn’t broken the way it did the NCAA might have given them a slap on the wrist yet again. It’s only because this happened right underneath their noses, demonstrating their ineptitude and utter lack of control, that they’re going to do anything at all. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-allegations-against-the-university-of-miami-football-program/592984/65 "2011-08-21T16:26:24Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > No. The shocking part\* is that rich people are trying to make the athletic program more attractive by … No. The shocking part is that anyone is shocked. Major-college sports, especially football, have been major businesses for well over a century. The major colleges have been happy with the revenue, and even with the student morale those businesses have created, but only the most naive have taken seriously either the amateurism part or the student part of “student-athlete”. Even those weren’t hypocritical until the NCAA was formed to help college administrations get control of the revenue stream away from the student organizations that used to run it. Be as disappointed as you like that some colleges have not been able to walk that tightrope of hypocrisy and corruption as well as others. But don’t be shocked, or even surprised. If you want something useful to be done, then work to get the pretensions out of the industry. Quit pretending college football is about college at all, or that student-athletes are students and not mercenaries. You might even enjoy watching the spectacle more if you can stop deploring it for being one. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-allegations-against-the-university-of-miami-football-program/592984/66 "2011-08-22T18:38:26Z")
I wonder if this will help Andrew Luck in the Heisman. One Heisman has been taken away and possibly last year’s on the way out, on top of the current crop of scandals. It might be tempting to “award” it to a QB at Stanford, who really has the quintessential definition of student-athlete. Would be a wonderful distraction. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2011, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-allegations-against-the-university-of-miami-football-program/592984/67 "2011-08-26T11:22:28Z")
Well apparently, UM is concerned enough that they’ve declared [8 players ineligible](http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/jacory-harris-reportedly-among-miami-hurricanes-declared-ineligible-082511). Of course, this is the OSU method, where they immediately petition the NCAA to reinstate. The beauty of this little ploy is that the NCAA, being the giant money whores they are, will give them back their eligibility (since it’ll be months before anything is proven). At that point, even if the allegations turn out to be true, UM won’t necessarily have to forfeit those games since the NCAA will have cleared the players to play. Obviously, any prior games are still up for vacating. And, in an interesting aside, [UM officials didn’t bother](http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/Miami-football-coach-Al-Golden-says-school-should-have-told-him-about-alleged-violations-081711) to tell either their new head football coach _or_ their new AD about the pending allegations before their hire! Golden has [refused to comment](http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/21/2368316/miami-hurricanes-al-golden-is.html) about a possible clause in his contract that let’s him leave penalty-free if the program get smacked. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-allegations-against-the-university-of-miami-football-program/592984/68 "2011-08-31T04:50:20Z")
I hope the NCAA pencil-necks burn the Miami football program to the ground - it has been extolling thuggishness for at least 30 years. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2011, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-allegations-against-the-university-of-miami-football-program/592984/69 "2011-08-31T15:52:39Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Be as disappointed as you like that some colleges have not been able to walk that tightrope of hypocrisy and corruption as well as others. But don’t be shocked, or even surprised. See the asterisked part. > [@Zakalwe](#): > > The beauty of this little ploy is that the NCAA, being the giant money whores they are, will give them back their eligibility (since it’ll be months before anything is proven) Most of the players involved have to sit out one game and pay back some money, but two players are ineligible for four games and one is out for six games in addition to repaying the benefit money. [SI says the really signfiicant thing here is that the details of the benefits corroborate what Shapiro said.](http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/stewart_mandel/08/30/miami.suspensions/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_t12_a2) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-allegations-against-the-university-of-miami-football-program/592984.md?page=3)