Miami Investigation Leads To More Dirt Being Tossed At SEC Schools

August 16th, 2011 07:20 PM║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Schools: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
Tags: Aubrey Hill, Bryce Brown, Miami, NCAA

I hope you weren’t thinking we could all start talking about football at some point this month. Obviously that’s just not going to happen. Sure Expansionpalooza 2011 has diverted everyone’s attention from the gridiron, but it’s also stolen airtime away from our Summer of Scandals. And let’s face it, the world was talking more about scandals than football when the Texas A&M chatter started.

Well, now we can talk about both. Expansion and scandals! ‘Cause nobody wants to talk football, right?

Yahoo! Sports has just wrapped up what it calls an 11-month investigation into University of Miami booster Nevin Shapiro. Shapiro — in jail because of his involvement in a $930 million Ponzi scheme — claims to have provided thousands of impermissible benefits to at least 72 athletes from 2002 through 2010. That’s one reason the NCAA is digging into Miami athletics right now.

But all of the athletes involved with Shapiro weren’t Miami Hurricanes. Try these names on for size:

Bryce Brown — former Tennessee running back
Orson Charles — current Georgia tight end
Andre Debose — current Florida wide receiver
Matt Patchan — current Florida offensive lineman

Also, Florida assistant coach Aubrey Hill and former Auburn and Ole Miss assistant Joe Pannunzio have been implicated in taking part in Shapiro-backed schemes to land recruits while at Miami. Pannunzio is the director of football operations at Alabama currently.

Alabama offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland has also been accused of illegal recruiting practices while at Miami.

The lengthy — and I do mean lengthy — report can be found right here. Take a look. And then be ready to hear much more about this one in the days and weeks to come.

On a personal note, I’m really, really tired of having to write about and summarize scandals. Clearly it’s time for the NCAA to just start lopping heads. If a coach is implicated in a cheating scandal, give him a lifetime ban. If a player takes a $50 bill, end his career.

At this point, I see nothing short of death penalty-type punishments curtailing this never-ending nightmare of violations, infractions and scandals.

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29 comments

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VicousDawg

Show me where, ANY, SEC team was implicated in doing wrong. This is all about the U and their corruption. I WISH Florida and Meyer were implicated but its just not there. Meyer nor Saban Nor Richt has anything to do with this mess, so stop trying to imply they do with naming players on SEC teams. No SEC team was named in having any recruit to a boosters house. Its all about how the U recruited players.

johnmrsec

VicousDawg...

But three current SEC coaches are accused of wrongdoing while they were at Miami. That could affect their standing at their current schools if the NCAA finds real dirt on them.

And several current SEC players could face eligibility issues if the NCAA decides that they accepted illegal benefits during the recruiting process. It doesn't matter that an SEC school wasn't the provider of the benefits... once a player accepts benefits, he's got eligibility issues... wherever he lands.

And I hardly tried to imply that Meyer, Saban or Richt had anything to do with this. I don't see their names anywhere in this piece.

John

theNetSmith

Mark Emmert, on ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike this morning, said that the NCAA was not only aware of the situation, but has been investigating it for some time already (11 months?). I guess I've been assuming that Miami had faded into Bolivia since developing their bad boy image back in the 90s -- the football program has been largely irrelevant for the past 10 years. Perhaps Shapiro and the accused coaches/players had developed a level of comfort in believing the same -- that the NCAA magnifying glass was focused elsewhere. Regardless, if everything Shapiro claims is true, that's an awful lot of crap going on over an extended period of time.

On a side note, I know someone on the faculty at Miami with stories to tell regarding football players and academics. You'd be naive if you didn't expect the staff of most BCS schools to have similar experiences regarding preferential treatment of athletes, but hearing it directly from someone who has seen it first-hand... just makes it more real and personal, I guess.

Keith

John, I read your site everyday, no matter what. I appreciate your stuff. Sometimes the critical people are more vocal than the supporters and that is sad, but you have a huge following of people that appreciate your stuff.

johnmrsec

Keith...

Thanks for the support. I wasn't trying to ask for compliments. Sorry that came across as me fishing for compliments. I was just trying to remind the critics that they're getting all this for free and that it's not as easy as it looks to be on-call 24/7, to always be in a rush, and to have little time to proofread. Those people outraged by typos or poorly formed sentences are welcome to dig up everything in the SEC on their own.

Thanks again,
John

HoustonVol

I read the CNNSI summary and opinion of the Yahoo article. Holy Flying Pigs Batman! I don't know what the penalty should be for this. I think you can see a TV ban coming - at the least. Something that has not been used since the 90's for a major program. The NCAA might even do what they did to Baylor - force them to cancel all of their non-conference games for a season or two. If these items are true, there is not even a case to compare it with for punishment.

@TheNavyMike

These allegations against the UM are insane. I would be surprised if the NCAA DOESN'T hit The U with the Death Penalty.

And I do appreciate how Mr. SEC is up on all the stories. I just moved to Denver, CO and the site makes it easier for me to keep up with the SEC stories. Believe it or not, college football isn't as popular out here as it is in Knoxville. Now if there was only away to watch "Sports Source" out here.....

BamaCLT

Oops. I meant, holier than thou. Does that make me less than typical?

BamaCLT

It's truly sad how boosters can ruin programs.

HoustonVol

Lane Kiffen - the STD of coaching. The gift that keeps on giving.

clockwatcher

Agreed. Freaking Bryce Brown...unbelieveable. Why didn't we end up paying for Cam Newton as well?

Gator J

Seemingly impossibly, your writing has gotten even worse since i offered you proofreading a while back.

"all of the athletes involved with Shapiro weren’t Miami Hurricanes"?? Errr, i think what you meant was, "Not all of the athletes involved with Shapiro were Miami Hurricanes". Just atrocious, AWFUL writing. Especially for a site that spends as much time patting itself on the back as it apparently does following the basic elements of style, as E.B. White dubbed the cornerstones of basic English.

There's a difference. A really, really big one. One that even your typical SEC fan might be able to grasp.

Think about it.

You're welcome.

-js

BamaCLT

"Seemingly impossible" is grammatically correct, not "seemingly impossibly." Glass house, meet stone.

johnmrsec

BamaCLT...

Thanks for trying, but don't worry about that guy. If a person reads this site for free everyday, gets dozens of free links everyday, gets dozens of exclusive, free opinions everyday, and (usually) gets accurate free breakdowns of what's going on everyday... they've got to be a pretty miserable person if they then come here and rant about one poorly written sentence out of the hundreds we post each day.

I wish my partner and I had started a site that wrote just one or two stories per day. I'd have plenty of time to write and then proof-read everything we posted. Unfortunately, we felt that there was a need/want for a site that served as an objective, opinion-filled clearinghouse for all the news in the league everyday. So by default we're ALWAYS up against the clock. Like when I finally stop writing at 6:30, sit down to dinner and immediately get a text message telling me I quickly need to post something about the Yahoo! story. Rushing and tired, we'll have typos and bad grammar from time to time.

Is there ever a "Hey, thanks for writing on EVERYTHING from 9am to 9pm" comment? Nope. But there are smart aleck syntax lessons.

Oh, well.

Sincerest thanks to you for reading our site,
John

theNetSmith

It is also truly appreciated by some SEC fans-in-waiting! Gig 'em, John!

BamaCLT

Well, I'm up late at night (12:40am EST) reading, and this site is one of four that I check every morning when I get to my office at 8am EST. Thanks for the free information, as it is truly appreciated by us typical SEC fans.

Regards.

BamaCLT

I finally get to use my phrase (that no one seems to get): Gator J, that's the pot calling the kettle marijuana. Badump bump.

BamaCLT

Okay, this is the last one and I'll stop. Sorry. But the "typical SEC fan" statement chapped me. Gator J, you have two fragment sentences in your holier than though attempt at public critique.

BamaCLT

Dang, even us "typical SEC fans" know that when you reference a daggum quote midway into tha daggum sentence, you should lead in with an ellipsis, Gator J. An ellipsis is dem der three period marks dat look like dis: "...all of the athletes involved with Shapiro weren’t Miami Hurricanes." And I added the period that you left off at the end of the sentence when you quoted it.

Works Cited:

MrSEC.com. Internet Article. 16 Aug. 2011 < ;http://www.mrsec.com/2011/08/miami-investigation-leads-to-more-dirt-tossed-at-sec-schools/#idc-container>

Daggum. I guess my English and Lit teachers at Alabama learned me good. I still remember all of that even though I graduated 10 years ago.

johnmrsec

Gator J...

You know, I just went through a battle with cancer. I'm pretty sure I prefer cancer to douchebags who read this site for free and then complain about it.

So how's 'bout you start your own website where you read and write thousands of words per day as fast as you can from about 8:30 am til 7:30 pm and see if every line you pump out is Shakespearian in quality.

Better yet, why don't you just go to hell.

Oh, and thanks for reading,
John

Michael

Love the response John. And Gator J, I wish FUPA upon the mother of your unborn children.

Clockwatcher

Gator J...basically you don't have to be a jerk about typos/mistakes. Just tell them what is wrong and go on.

pdton4tide

Nice comeback jrzvol. I guess that's why the NCAA hasn't come back on UT's case. Oh yeah that's right ut is still currently under NCAA investigation. Good luck with that!

Southern_Guy

The investigation is over. UT is only waiting on penalties.

jrzvol

Nice try there, Ira. I see no claims that UT bid anything for Brown, but if anybody should know about buying players it's the Tide. Any idea where I can get a good suit in Tuscaloosa?

Ira McGee

BamaDave, even if Stoutland and Pannunzio are guilty of something at the U, that might affect them, but it wouldn't have any effect on the Alabama program.

When Bryce Brown signed at the last minute with Tennessee there were rumors Kiffin, who's broken so many other NCAA rules, was paying for him. Now it looks like Kiffin outbid the U for Brown. Why would Brown go to UT when he could get $1,000 cash payments at the U? Because UT was giving him MORE!

BamaDave

I agree completely. I realize there will be no ramifications on Bama. Regardless, these guys need to be terminated immediately. Saban has ran a clean program since his arrival and I for one don't want it screwed up by two idiots.

BamaDave

Agreed, and I hope Alabama gets rid of Stoutland and Pannunzio before morning.

Joe

If you go to Rolltide.com and look up the football staff ... notice that their (pannunzio and stoutland) bios and photos have been removed for some reason. but i am totaly with you on getting rid of them.

Trackbacks

Homepage | MrSEC says:

August 3, 2012 at 10:17 am

[...] ex-Gator player Aubrey Hill away from Miami as his receivers coach and recruiting coordinator. By August of last year, Yahoo! Sports had uncovered an unholy mess of alleged rules violations at Miami tying back to [...]

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