MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The long nightmare that has been the Nevin Shapiro scandal looks like it will have its final official act on Tuesday.
The University of Miami will receive its NCAA punishment for the scandal on Tuesday 798 days, or 114 weeks, after Yahoo! Sports broke the report about Shapiro.
The NCAA will release a written report on the sanctions at 10 a.m. and then hold a media conference call to discuss the findings at 11 a.m.
Schools do not learn of the sanctions until the same day the information is released to the media and the public.
Incidentally, the teleconference will not be held by NCAA president Mark Emmert, and instead by the chair of the Committee on Infractions, Britton Banowsky, who is also commissioner of Conference USA.
Monday night, Coach Al Golden said, “I’ve been respectful as you can be for 28 months, I don’t know anything you guys don’t know and I haven’t talked to either of my superiors so in deference for that I’m not going to comment on anything.”
The scandal surrounding the University of Miami and former UM booster, and convicted Ponzi schemer Nevin Shapiro, dates back to 2010 when Yahoo! Sports published a devastating report on NCAA violations Shapiro alleged he committed while a booster for UM.
Shapiro alleged he provided impermissible benefits to numerous Hurricanes players, including some who were still at the school when the Yahoo! Sports report came out.
Some pundits across the college football world immediately called for major sanctions against UM up to and including the NCAA death penalty, or completely shutting down a program for at least one season.
The accusations came in the first season under head coach Al Golden, who has never coached a game at UM without the NCAA allegations hanging over the school.
As the NCAA investigation moved along, UM vowed to fight the charges along the way. It turned out the NCAA would help any potential charges UM would face as the collegiate governing body’s investigators committed several infractions of their own while investigating UM.
The NCAA conducted several investigations of its own investigation into UM and removed part of the evidence against UM from its file after the NCAA admitted investigators made several improper moves to acquire evidence against UM.
The school, and its fans, have been waiting since June for the NCAA to render a verdict. UM appeared in front of the NCAA Committee on Infractions in the summer and has been awaiting word ever since then.
The NCAA doesn’t have a set of guidelines for what punishment it will hand out on individual infractions cases.
The collegiate governing body could give the school probation of up to multiple seasons, scholarship losses, financial penalties, and possibly further bowl bans.
Once the decision is revealed by the NCAA, the school will have roughly two weeks to file an official appeal of the sanctions. Once the near certain appeal is filed, the appeals committee from the Committee on Infractions will re-examine the case and issue a final ruling.
Depending on the severity of the sanctions, UM can also choose to file a lawsuit against the NCAA’s sanctions.
The UM case will also have far-reaching impacts on some other schools and coaches, most notably the University of Missouri and Tigers head basketball coach Frank Haith.
Haith was at UM during Shapiro’s supposed influence at the school and was implicated in violations made to the NCAA by Shapiro.
If the NCAA chooses, it can issue sanctions against Haith up-to and including a show-cause penalty that a school must appear before the Committee on Infractions if it wants to hire Haith. How that would impact Haith’s current job isn’t known.
For it’s part, Missouri has stood by Haith during the entirety of the NCAA’s investigation.
What students are saying about the pending decision, click here.
