Nevin Shapiro lashes out at UM, NCAA; Heat, Dolphins chatter; UM eyes ex-Cane
SUNDAY BUZZ COLUMN
Nevin Shapiro and the University of Miami now share something in common: They’re both angry about how the NCAA has handled the investigation into the Hurricanes athletics program. But Shapiro also is upping the trash-talk against UM president Donna Shalala.
Shapiro, who went to the NCAA in March 2011 to allege rampant rules violations by UM – which prompted the NCAA investigation - lashed out at the NCAA and UM in e-mails and calls to The Miami Herald, his first public comments on the matter since early 2012.
“I gave them the body, the weapon and the evidence, and the NCAA still managed to ***** this thing up somehow,” he said.
Shapiro, serving a 20-year prison sentence for running a Ponzi scheme, added: “I am extremely disappointed with the NCAA’s approach to this investigation… and even more disappointed in the way that they tried to insinuate any improprieties towards my attorney, who acted only at the direction of individuals… in significant authority at the NCAA.
“The NCAA hadn’t yet seen something like this and was incapable to pull this investigation off properly with what they had within their means to do so…
“Who can really take the NCAA serious at this point? Or should? This investigation could have changed the landscape of policing collegiate sports, not… becoming a colossal joke as it has become…. If I had to do this all over again, I would have just kept to myself and allowed the NCAA to sink in their own stew for how ever many more years.”
He said the NCAA “should have requested a federal investigation” that would have entailed “subpoena powers and consequences for those who were untruthful in the process.” But the NCAA has no authority to do that.
“The NCAA is just not equipped to police member institutions when they can’t even police their own institution,” he said. “This was just too big for the compliance office of the NCAA. Period.”
Shapiro added: “Had I not run into my own personal issues with regards to my case, the NCAA could have never stopped the dealings between me and the University of Miami players, staff and administrators…
“The thing that really makes me laugh to myself is this: Everyone screams for national reform [in college sports] and the first real chance the NCAA has to make a strong stand, everyone wants to end the investigation because I’m in prison, or I’m this, and I’m that?”
Shapiro, who previously said he was angry with UM players for turning their back on him when he went to prison, cited three factors that he says validate his claims: UM self-imposing two bowl bans “without even all of the facts in hand yet”; UM paying the bankruptcy trustee $83,000 to ensure that no former UM players would be deposed; and the fact none of the players he named in the Yahoo! story have sued Yahoo! for defamation.
“If a reasonable person can get beyond those three questions and still question whether or not this story is true, they aren’t being honest with themselves and are in just plain denial,” he said.
UM has conceded some of Shapiro’s claims are true but disputes many of them, including some uncorroborated beyond Shapiro.
Meanwhile, Shapiro delivered this message to the UM president: “Shalala wants to scream: ‘We have suffered enough.’ OK, make this investigation transparent. Show all of the facts, not just the ones that you want to show because you think you have a legal loophole. I dare you….
“President Shalala – you want a war with me? I got one for you. I’m going to shake that city to its core and the nation will collectively say, ‘Holy [Bleep]!”
Shapiro keeps threatening to unleash more bombshells – “a Tsunami 5” – against Miami, but UM is highly skeptical. The NCAA investigated his gambling claims regarding the UM football program and found no evidence.
UM believes he already has given the NCAA everything he has to say, and that everything has been investigated, and there's no more harm he can cause the program beyond the mess already created.
“I don’t care if the NCAA smashes UM or doesn’t smash UM. That isn’t my concern,” Shapiro said, though his anger toward UM suggests otherwise. “My one and only concern has been to maintain my credibility as it relates to this story.
"I told the truth then and still to this day now and if President Shalala says that she is going to take this to the wall if Miami suffers any further sanctions, then I really hope that is the case because I’ve been standing at the wall for two years waiting for them to get here already.
“They won’t win this argument under any pretenses…. I can assure you that this will not be the last of this story from my end.”
Shapiro told Yahoo! in 2011 that he spent “millions of dollars” on UM athletes, coaches and recruits. In its notice of allegations, the NCAA alleged Shapiro provided $170,000 in benefits.
Shapiro gave the NCAA 114 names. In UM's Notice of Allegations, the NCAA, according to the Associated Press, cited 72 then-players, three recruits and 12 “friends and family members” of UM players or recruits. UM’s case will be heard by the infractions committee in mid-June.
Shapiro was transferred last week from Louisiana to Butner in North Carolina - a prison where Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff is serving time.
