In the last 18 months, the football teams at Southern California, Ohio State, Auburn, Oregon, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia Tech and LSU all have either been investigated or sanctioned by the NCAA.
Add the Miami Hurricanes to that list thanks to a man named Nevin Shaprio.
Shapiro, a former Miami booster who, incidentally enough is serving a 20-year prison sentence for masterminding a $930 million Ponzi scheme, told Yahoo! Sports he provided impermissible benefits to 72 of the university’s football players and other athletes between 2002 and 2010.
Shapiro said he gave money, cars, yacht trips, jewelry, televisions and other gifts to a list of players including Vince Wilfork, Jon Beason, Antrel Rolle, Devin Hester, Willis McGahee and the late Sean Taylor. Shapiro also claimed he paid for nightclub outings, sex parties, restaurant meals and in one case, an abortion for a woman impregnated by a player.
One former Miami player, running back Tyrone Moss, told Yahoo! Sports he accepted $1,000 from Shapiro around the time he was entering college.
Shapiro has said multiple times in the past year, including in the Yahoo! Sports story posted Tuesday afternoon, that he is angry with several of the players he claims to have helped when they were Hurricanes.
Miami officials began cooperating with NCAA investigators not long after Shapiro made claims about his involvement with players last year. University president Donna Shalala and athletic director Shawn Eichorst were questioned by the NCAA this week and the school reiterated it takes the allegations seriously.
NCAA president Mark Emmert said Wednesday the NCAA has been working on the Miami case for about five months.
“We’ve been on top of it for a while,” Emmert said, adding he could not discuss the specific allegations.
Shapiro also says he was part-owner in Axcess Sports & Entertainment, an agency that funneled cash to players to sign with its agents, a charge others in the agency deny.
Shapiro also told Yahoo! he made payments on behalf of the sports agency to serve as a tool to recruit potential clients. These included a lump sum of $50,000 to Patriots lineman and former Hurricane Wilfork, who signed with the agency as a former first-round pick.
“I can tell you what I think is going to happen,” Shapiro told Miami television station WFOR from federal prison in Atlanta. “Death penalty.”
Yahoo! Sports says it spent 100 hours interviewing Shapiro over the span of 11 months and audited thousands of pages financial and business records to try and substantiate his claims.
The allegations against Miami have sparked what is just the latest in a string of NCAA investigations involving some of college football’s most high-profile and successful programs.
“The system is place that manages and oversees compliance with the rules of amateurism is clearly not working on fundamental ways,” Emmert said. “You can’t look at that and say the system’s working well. It’s not.”
Shapiro was sentenced in June after he admitted to securities fraud and money laundering. He was also ordered to pay more than $82 million in restitution to his victims.
Many current Miami players were also named by Shapiro as receiving benefits, Yahoo! Sports reported, including quarterback Jacory Harris, Ray Ray Armstrong, Travis Benjamin, Sean Spence, Marcus Forston, Vaughn Telemaque, Dyron Dye, Aldarius Johnson and Olivier Vernon. Former Miami quarterback Robert Marve, now at Purdue, was also named by Shapiro, Yahoo! Sports said.
“Hell yeah, I recruited a lot of kids for Miami,” Shapiro told Yahoo! Sports. “(I recruited kids for Miami) with access to the clubs, access to the strip joints. My house. My boat. We’re talking about high school football players. Not anybody can just get into the clubs or strip joints. Who is going to pay for it and make it happen? That was me.”
The story cited specifics involving only Armstrong, Dye and Vernon, alleging they received extra benefits as recruits. Shapiro said he worked in concert with several former Miami assistant coaches during the recruiting process.
“It was me and some other players with my incoming (class),” Moss told Yahoo! Sports. “I’m not going to say the names but you can probably figure them out yourself.
“When I was getting there my freshman year, it was me and a couple more players. It was me and a few more of the guys in my incoming class that he kind of showed some love to.”
Miami coach Al Golden, who was hired in December, acknowledged yesterday that some of his players may have made mistakes.
“We’ll stay focused. I’m certain of that,” Golden said. “We’re disappointed, but we’re not discouraged. And again, there’s going to be a life lesson here. We’re talking about allegations from a man that’s behind bars, now. If these do hold some truth, then we’ll deal with them. There’s no other way to do it.”
Current Miami players were not made available to comment yesterday, and will not be made available before Wednesday’s practice, the university said.