Shapiro case unveils under-handed practices of national organization
Earlier this week, the National Collegiate Athletic Association sent a notice of allegations to the University of Miami concerning multiple violations within their athletics programs. The NCAA has leveled the dreaded “lack of institutional control” charge against the university, reserved for the most severe infractions. The investigation began in 2010 when Nevin Shapiro, a former University of Miami booster who had just pled guilty to perpetrating a Ponzi scheme that amassed $930 million, notified the university of improper benefits he allegedly provided for student athletes. Miami imposed harsh penalties on the program internally after notifying the NCAA which has been investigating the claims ever since. However, the NCAA has made some missteps of its own, showcasing the institution’s ridiculous hypocrisy.
At the end of last month, the NCAA revealed the discovery of Shapiro’s attorney on their payroll. The NCAA released a report this week documenting the indiscretions and concluded that no official rules had been broken. The report did reveal that the NCAA gave more than $8,000 to Shapiro for communication costs, including more than $4,000 deposited into his prison account. Even though the NCAA found that it did not break any laws, it found the conduct reason enough to fire the vice president of enforcement, who approved of the payments, and a lead investigator. In this investigation, the NCAA has shown the same lack of institutional control they blame Miami for.
There are many reasons the NCAA’s action in this case has been troubling. Most obviously, if the NCAA is providing services for a witness in a case, then they have lost impartiality. The witness would clearly be incentivized to testify in favor of whoever is signing their checks. The NCAA also sent letters to former players presenting them with an ultimatum: Testify, or we take Shapiro’s word as truth. This was also unethical and essentially forced players to talk to the NCAA, if only to clear their names. According to a University of Miami statement, none of the malapropos accusations originally leveled by Shapiro and reported when the story broke made it into the notice allegations the school received.
The University of Miami very likely broke NCAA rules, and they do deserve punishment. However, that doesn’t change the fact that the NCAA circumvented its own rules and used under-handed practices in order to prove its case, nor does it change the extremely hypocritical nature of the rules themselves. One thing is certain, the NCAA has no moral high ground from which to scoff at Miami. As a business that uses amateurism as a thinly veiled guise to exploit services at well-below market value, it has very little credibility. As long as the NCAA colludes with professional leagues to essentially force athletes into performing for just a scholarship while they rake in cash, their judgments will seem empty.