Haith’s Lawyer Prepping Mizzou Fans For Bad News?

January 17th, 2013 01:13 PM║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Schools: Missouri
Tags: Haith Miami, Miami, Michael Buckner, NCAA

Frank Haith wants to know what the NCAA has dug up on his old Miami program. Haith’s lawyer wants to know what allegations the NCAA will make. Fans of Haith’s current school — Missouri — surely want to know what their coach will be facing in terms NCAA accusations, too.

The scary part is… it sounds like Haith’s attorney, Michael Buckner, is already preparing people for what could be bad news:

“Whatever happens, everyone has to understand, these are just allegations. The enforcement staff has been wrong before. The university involved and the coaches themselves have to look at what the NCAA produces and conduct their own investigations. There have been times when the NCAA has made allegations against my clients and I’ve found glaring mistakes in the evidence — maybe they didn’t interview everybody they should have or reached a conclusion that wasn’t supported by the evidence

It’s the job of the attorneys or whoever is representing each of the parties to do independent vetting of the evidence and bring that information forward to the NCAA so that the complete situation can be presented before the Committee on Infractions.”

Does Buckner have reason to suspect Haith will be hit with serious allegations? Or is he simply preparing people for what might – or might not — be bad news?

The NCAA’s investigation into Haith’s Miami program stems from a jailed ex-booster’s claim that he provided $10,000 for one of Haith’s staff to pay to prospect DeQuan Jones for his signature on a National Letter of Intent.

There is still no word on when the NCAA will finally deliver a letter of allegations to Miami (and Haith) though reports over the weekend suggested the notice could arrive at any time.

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8 comments

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buddha22

I have no trust in the NCAA, period.

SpencerMoore

The reality is the NCAA spent more than a year and big $$$ on this so they are going to claim as much as they can in the report, even if they have no way of backing it up or enforcing it later. I they do they investigate and then say " say "nothing to the allegation of the bitter convict" then the media would freak. Regardless of what the NCAA initially says, there is not doubt that lawyers on all sides will then be put into action. And yet the NCAA could make rulings based on hunches, just like they have many times in the past. Missouri CAN NOT be punished directly, only slightly indirectly if Haith is "charged". Even then...it would be about his reputation.

MoKelly1

Lets assume some fairly serious allegations are made by the NCAA. What happens? Can Mizzou be penalized for stuff the coach did in Miami? Can the coach be suspended by the NCAA? Or, is the biggest issue what Mizzou administration thinks and what pressure the administration feels it must do to "deal" with the issue?

XEN610

@MoKelly1 Remember we lost Kareem Rush for several games because of issues related to his AAU days. MU was penalized, yet had nothing to do with the violations. The likelihood is that we will wind up getting some penalty from this. Rationality and NCAA are two items that are not correlated.

SpencerMoore

@XEN610 @MoKelly1 Apples and oranges. Mizzou will not be officially penalized for anything regardless of what the NCAA's finding say. PERIOD. Re: Rush, that's not much different than Shabazz Muhammad sitting out, or what happened to one of ku's one-and-dones two yeawrs ago. Of course, the ku and ucla recruits accepted big money (as they have since the Wilt Chamberlain and Lew Alcinder days, respectively) but.....

John at MrSEC moderator

@MoKelly1

The NCAA is taking a harder stance with coaches. Head coaches can no longer feign ignorance about violations committed by underlings. So if the NCAA finds Haith guilty of serious issues, it could certainly suspend him or put recruiting sanctions on him. Both would obviously impact Missouri.

But it's best to cross that bridge when we come to it. No one know what the NCAA has found. Haith's lawyer just seems to be prepping folks for the worst.

Thanks for reading the site,

John

KC Tiger Fan

@John at MrSEC @MoKelly1 When is the last time the NCAA sanctioned a school not involved with infractions? The closest that k is slapping the 'Show Cause' lable on a coach that is not currently under contract.

My guess is that the worst possible scenario for Mizzou is the PR hit if the NCAA claims that Haith is dirty. The players that were suspended for the supposed infractions were all reinstated after just a couple of games, that does not happen if the players were actually paid to play.

John at MrSEC moderator

@KC Tiger Fan @MoKelly1

If you read my response you know that I didn't say the NCAA would punish Missouri. I said it's possible that with its new get-tough-on-coaches policy that the NCAA could penalize Haith or even put recruiting limitations on him personally (X amount of home visits, etc).

That would seem to be the worst case scenario for Missouri, but with the NCAA, no one ever knows exactly how they'll handle a situation.

Thanks for reading the site,

John

Trackbacks

An NCAA Show-Cause Penalty Would Likely Lead To Haith’s Ouster At Mizzou says:

January 23, 2013 at 10:09 am

[...] of an online debate with a few Missouri fans who took offense to our suggestion on the 17th that Frank Haith’s lawyer appeared to be “prepping Mizzou fans for bad news.” In their view, the NCAA can not punish the Tiger program for violations Haith may have committed [...]

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