Donna Shalala’s University of Miami certainly knows how to keep it coming. They know if you want your sports program to be number one on the disgust parade, things have to keep happening. We all know the history:
In 1994 there were allegations that Miami-based rapper Luther Campbell and former Miami players performing in the NFL were offering cash for big hits—50 bucks a fumble, 200 bucks an interception.
In May 1995 an NCAA investigation found that positive drug tests of various Hurricane players had been withheld by the football program a week before the January Orange Bowl. Later in 1995, the NCAA found Miami guilty of eight different categories of rules violations. Among them: excessive financial awards, Pell Grant fraud, pay-for-play payouts, and failure to follow its own drug-testing policy. In 2006 Miami football players were involved in two brawls, one with LSU in the Peach Bowl and the other during the regular season with Florida International, in which safety Anthony Reddick was said to have used his helmet as a weapon.
More recently, the Nevin Shapiro scandal wiped all other sports stories off the pages for weeks. And just yesterday some ex-football coach sued the school for mucho money.
Can you imagine how much all this shit is costing the school? I’m not talking reputation costs. UM went into the reputation toilet long ago. I’m talking dollars. How much of this university’s budget goes for sports pay-offs?
May 3rd, 2012 at 8:15AM
But that’s a separate budget: donations, ticket sales, TV revenue, blablabla.
May 3rd, 2012 at 8:54AM
And huge HUGE layoffs at the UM medical school yesterday.
May 3rd, 2012 at 9:37AM
Yes – I saw that – it’s just head-spinning, all the good news coming out of that school.
May 4th, 2012 at 9:48AM
Surely Kentucky basketball’s long record of vileness going back to the Rupp days puts them at the head of the parade.
Oh, by the way, in a celebration of the true meaning of “student-athlete,” The One is welcoming Calipari and his team to the White House.