According to ESPN, it looks like after three years of a botched investigation, the NCAA has finally decided to hand down its punishment to the University of Miami over the Nevin Shapiro scandal.
Joe Schad of ESPN is reporting that The U will lose three scholarships for the next three years and suffer no bowl ban.
Shapiro has accused UM of violating NCAA rules involving more than 100 players.
Miami will receive no additional bowl ban and lose 9 scholarships per source
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) October 22, 2013
Miami loses 3 scholarships per year for 3 years. Highly manageable.
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) October 22, 2013
This is good news for UM. It would lose only a handful of scholarships and would still be able to play in bowl games. The UM football team was just ranked as the number-seven team in the nation by the BCS this week.
Overall, the investigation turned out to be a massive waste of time and money by the NCAA.
From the get-go, the NCAA investigation of UM has been plagued by its own scandal -- it paid thousands of dollars to Shapiro's lawyer to gain subpoenaed witness testimony in a bankruptcy case so that the forbidden information could be used in its investigation, according to State Sen. Joe Abruzzo.
The NCAA enforcement staff violated its own rules while investigating The U, such as improper payments to Shapiro.
Shapiro, a former UM booster, is currently imprisoned for orchestrating a $930 million Ponzi scheme.
UPDATE: The NCAA officially released its findings.
Starting with the most ironic and lack of self-awareness sentence of all time, the NCAA's report begins: "The University of Miami lacked institutional control..."
You can read the rest of the NCAA's findings here.
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