In sanctioning USC’s football program two weeks ago, the Chairman of the NCAA Committee in Infractions, former Univ. of Miami (FL) Athletic Director Paul Dee, oversaw the most severe penalties levied against a Division I football program since SMU was forced to drop football.
The USC penalties happened in large part due to a NCAA investigation into the school’s football program that was sparked by multiple reports by Yahoo Sports beginning in 2006. Those reports, authored by Jason Cole and Charles Robinson, detailed improper benefits received by USC running back Reggie Bush - among other NCAA-applicable improprieties.
For longtime NCAA observers, COI Chairman Dee’s decision to punish USC severely was ironic as he previously was immersed in a notoriously renegade football program: The Miami Hurricanes of the ’80s and ’90s.
In 1995, the Miami football program under Athletic Director Dee was heavily penalized by the NCAA for rules violations that NCAA Committee of Infractions chairman David Swank reported at the time indicated a “significant lack of institutional control.”
15 years later, Dee applied that same term to the USC football program in doling out harsh penalties to the Trojan football program.
Six months before the NCAA handed out its penalties to Dee’s Miami football program in ‘95, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED’s Alexander Wolff reported the problems at Miami to be so widespread that he argued the school should drop football altogether.
Perhaps not coincidentally, after the SI piece by Wolff, the NCAA ramped up its investigation of Miami - which reportedly began four years earlier. On Dec. 2, 1995, the Hurricanes received a one-year bowl ban, were stripped of 24 scholarships and placed on probation for three years. (Dee reported to the media on June 10 that Miami lost 31 scholarships.)
Much of Wolff’s SI piece came from citing investigative work by MIAMI HERALD reporter Dan Le Batard. On May 19, 1995, in addition to detailing outrageous off-field activities of Hurricane football players, Le Batard wrote of an incident involving Dee that had caught the attention of NCAA investigators:
Miami’s drug-testing controversy centers on Erickson’s interaction with Dee, or lack of it. Dee said Erickson didn’t inform him of positive tests and that he had an obligation to do so. Erickson said he did tell Dee - though sometimes he waited before doing so - and was not required to report results.
At issue: Dee, concerned about a strict policy that called for a one-game suspension for a second positive test and a year’s suspension for a third, suspended unspecified parts of the policy after taking over as AD in June of 1993 for (Former UM AD Dave) Maggard (who, frustrated about spending so much time on damage control, had resigned).
Subsequently, Erickson did not suspend any player who tested positive.
Le Batard on Dee’s response to NCAA investigators about Miami’s drug-testing policy:
And Miami Athletic Director Paul Dee yesterday reported his findings on whether the school adhered to its own drug policy. Dee reported that three athletes who tested positive for drugs “did not receive the appropriate sanctions under our program
This is the same Dee who Le Batard reported, “suspended unspecified parts of the policy after taking over as AD in June of 1993.”
David Hyde of the FT. LAUDERDALE SUN-SENTINEL added in ‘95:
Dee oversaw the drug-policy mess that allowed three players, including Warren Sapp, to keep on playing. The old policy was suspended. The checks and balances thrown out. The chain-of-command of drug test aborted.
All this was by Dee’s decision so that then-coach Dennis Erickson could keep playing his players. But give Dee some points: He convinced the NCAA this problem wasn’t intentional but a problem of “miscommunication.”
Despite taking over as Miami Athletic Director in ‘93, Dee was involved with the football program since ‘86. Le Batard:
During Jimmy Johnson’s tenure in 1986, after Time magazine called Miami “the best and most troublesome team in the country,” Foote convened a six-man committee to review team behavior and recommend stricter rules. The committee concluded Miami had integrity “on and off the field.” One of the committee members: Paul Dee.
Le Batard’s ‘93 report on the off-field, unregulated behavior by Miami football players between ‘89-’93 details unspeakable, appalling activities:
“GUNS, DRUGS AND SEXUAL ABUSE have been as much a part of the University of Miami football story as touchdowns and championships, both before and during Dennis Erickson’s six years as coach. The latest revelations come to light just as the NCAA begins to investigate other alleged improprieties.”
Miami Athletic Director Dee on Hurricanes Football Coach Erickson to Le Batard in ‘93:
“Dennis tried to deal with his kids fairly,” said Dee, adding that he wouldn’t describe Erickson as lenient. “There was discipline in nearly every case.”
Erickson’s drinking problems in Seattle eventually helped lead to his ouster as coach. Le Batard reports Erickson had similar issues while coaching under Dee in Miami:
Erickson often drank to excess in public, according to eight sources who witnessed it on separate occasions. One ex-Miami coach said Erickson would get so “obliterated” that he was “walking on his knees.”
“How could he discipline players,” the coach asked, “when he didn’t have discipline in his own life?”
Erickson was arrested last month in Marysville for driving while intoxicated. His blood-alcohol reading was .23, more than twice the legal limit. Erickson agreed to two years of treatment to defer prosecution.
In penalizing Miami as it did, the NCAA cited lack of oversight of Miami’s drug-testing policy and a massive case of Pell Grant fraud within the athletic department that involved dozens of athletes.
Wolff of SI on the Miami Pell Grant fraud before the NCAA penalties:
Fifty-seven players were implicated in a financial-aid scandal that the feds call “perhaps the largest centralized fraud upon the federal Pell Grant program ever committed.”
Randall Mell of the FT. LAUDERDALE SUN-SENTINEL on the unbelievable scale of the fraud:
More than 40 current and former Miami Hurricanes football players are among the targets of a federal investigation into Pell Grant fraud, federal prosecutors said for the first time Friday.
Close to half of last year’s national championship team - including several starters on this year’s team - are among those being offered a deal by the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Hyde of the Sun-Sentinel on Dee’s response to the Pell Grant scandal after the NCAA handed down its penalties in ‘95:
On Friday, Swank, (UM President) Foote and Dee made it sound like UM was on the straight and narrow after a series of documented violations, starting with the Pell Grant scandal engineered by former academic department aide and current federal prisoner Tony Russell.
There’s just a few problems in buying Miami as Reform U. One is that Anna Price, who was Russell’s boss, who was singled out for her role with Russell in the NCAA’s report and who received a letter of reprimand from the university, isn’t just still on the job.
She has been promoted!
Speaking of promotions, Erickson bolted Miami for Seattle before the NCAA dropped the hammer on his Miami football program. His destination may be familiar to USC fans: The same Seattle Seahawks Pete Carroll bolted USC for before the Trojans were saddled with NCAA sanctions spearheaded by COI Chairman Dee.
As for Dee’s background, is it unreasonable to think that the NCAA could’ve found someone without direct involvement in one of the most notorious college football programs in history to serve as its top policeman charged with enforcing NCAA rules?
4:26 pm on June 27th, 2010
What’s the saying… it takes a thief to catch a thief?
Who better to identify loss of institutional control than someone who never had it in the first place?
4:27 pm on June 27th, 2010
The more things change the more they stay the same. This time it’s the west coast football factory, USC, instead of the east coast (or south) football factory, Miami.
The facts of life are that so many major programs draw on kids from rough neighborhoods, or if the kids aren’t from the rough neighborhoods, they’ve drunk the ghetto flavored Kool-Aid that the dominant hip-hop culture makes. So you get real thugs and wanna be thugs: drugs, guns, sexual abuse, violence, etc. So many D-1 coaches and assistants spend boatloads of time covering things up, putitng out brushfires, etc. in the hopes that nothing gets too egregious to warrant an NCAA investigation.
4:35 pm on June 27th, 2010
Two weeks later, Dee’s name surfaces here. I thought it would have been immediate. There are many NCAA committee members who are either ADs or even presidents of schools who were placed on probation such as John Welty (Fresno State). He was on the NCAA board executive committee and the special NCAA Task Force on the Future of Intercollegiate Athletics.
5:53 pm on June 27th, 2010
Who cares who was on the committee? SUC has been cheating for years, and they should be lucky that the Bush stuff is all they have proof of. Winston Justice, Booty, Jarrett, Leinart, Woods, Henderson, etc etc
What a bunch of cheaters
5:59 pm on June 27th, 2010
I like the I CANT BELIEVE IT YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST tone of the article even tho the information is archaic.
Are you suggesting that since he was lenient with the UM he was also lenient with USC. Or that he has it out for USC because he was once associated with UM?
6:08 pm on June 27th, 2010
The NCAA making Paul Dee the chaitman of the COI is like the UN putting Iran on it’s Commission for the Status of Women. Absolutely insane.
6:51 pm on June 27th, 2010
Hey there USC cheats - jealously’s a bitch, ain’t it? Sure is easy to make accusations without proof. Heck, not even the NCAA after four years of investigation determined that the USC football program cheated (I’ve read their 67 page report), other than perhaps improperly hiring an outside consultant. But more power to you if that makes you feel superior in your deluded perspective. USC is obviously in you head big time, occupying a substantial portion of that otherwise vacant space.
6:53 pm on June 27th, 2010
I love when cheaters and sensationalist journalism meet. Cheat On!
7:51 pm on June 27th, 2010
Every team cheats in college football and some cheat way more than others i.e. USC. This article is lame, way too long and relatively pointless. So what if that guy did some stuff back in the day. Hes probably on that commission because he knows how to cheat with the best of them and therefore knows all their tricks and tactics. By the look of the document all the other board guys are lawyers so he’s basically there to run a team of lawyers, not go on some personal vendetta against poor, pitiful USC.
8:48 pm on June 27th, 2010
“haters” is a term said by cheaters who are embarassed and exposed…yes…it means they know they would’ve lost without cheating…ouch
9:04 pm on June 27th, 2010
I have yet to hear any proof that USC Football has cheated at anything. I am saying “real proof.” We certainly have a million voices saying that “USC cheats” which is solely based on the misguided belief that a team as successful as USC has been over the last decade MUST have been cheating. There’s no other reason since . . . since . . . they win too much, dang it. Anyone here who says that USC Football knowingly cheats or had cheated needs to show a minimal amount of integrity and present real facts, not conjecture. Based on the NCAA COI report, I would challenge them in the same way.
9:08 pm on June 27th, 2010
Say there the truth, any jealous dimwit can sling mud, but the FACTS are USC football WAS NOT FOUND BY THE NCAA TO HAVE CHEATED, other than with the hiring of an outside consultant.
For those of you phonetically challenged and unable to actually read the NCAA report, what you will not find are direct tie ins involving USC boosters, administration, staff, or coaches, other than the allegation that a USC assistant “should have known” and acted. Yes, Reggie Bush and his scumbag father are at fault here and I fully support the fullest measure of retribution against them. BUT, Reggie Bush is not USC.
Sorry that the NCAA’s exhaustive investigation doesn’t square with your mindless mantra, but if you’re a fan of UCLA, ND or most any other USC opponent in the last decade, it’s certainly understandable the inferiority you must feel.
But the FACT is, you - nor the NCAA - can provide FACTS that USC cheated.
9:25 pm on June 27th, 2010
So, the Original Convict U of M had guns, drugs, sexual abuse, academic and financial fraud with some 50 scholarship athletes and numbers university staff and administrators involved and received a 1 yr ban and loss of 24 scholies?
And, USC has only 1 athlete in football receiving illicit benefits from agents off campus as an inducement to leave school early with no staff, coachers, or boosters involved, and USC gets a 2 yr ban with a 30 scholarship loss?
On what planet can you rationalize this? The only thing that makes sense is that Paul Dee is trying to remove some tarnish from his Miami and reapply it elsewhere. Paul Dee as Chair of the COI is like allowing a convicted child molester to run a day care.
9:54 pm on June 27th, 2010
Miami had over 40 players involved in a financial fraud directly organized by a UM employee. Again, in case you missed it: that’s about half the team guilty of a federal felony organized by a UM employee to funnel money to players. For this crime, UM received lesser sanctions than USC received because of the extra benefits received by one player. If that sounds “fair” to you, look up the work “arbitrary” in the dictionary. While you’re at it, look up the work hypocrite. Perhaps you’ll find a picture of Paul Dee.
9:56 pm on June 27th, 2010
Would love to see a follow-up article about how Dee was able to change the bylaws in January 2008 to make it more difficult to successfully win an appeal.
Frustrated that so many of the sanctions were being overturned that the COI administered, Dee was able to implement a legislative work-around to change the bylaws without having the member schools even vote on it.
Taken straight out of Washington DC politics, his manipulation was a power play to further consolidate the COI’s influence.
10:00 pm on June 27th, 2010
This whole thing stinks. No one is denying that Reggie Bush did wrong and USC has to pay for it. But how can ANYONE with an ounce of honesty look at what Miami did under Paul Dee — 100 athletes DEFRAUDING the federal gov’t with the HELP OF THE SCHOOL, PAYING FB players for TD and dirty hits, Paul Dee personally stopping the drug tests — yet they only get ONE bowl ban and 24 schollies lost? With NO revocation of titles or forfeiture of wins?
And this corrupt individual is giving USC much harsher penalties for ONE FB player dealing with a prospective agent?
I don’t care how much you hate USC or how much you envy USC. Anyone who doesn’t think there is something VERY strange about that is a liar.
10:06 pm on June 27th, 2010
for all you haters, who think USC, it does not matter. If the NCAA get away with this, your team is next.
No matter what happens to USC, what needs to happen is some rule changes. Specifically, there needs to be an agreement with the NCAA and the NFL that any agent/wanabe agent, who is found to have violated NCAA rules, is forever barred from representing athletes as an agent. Further, there should be jail time and heavy fines. Finally, anybody who want’s to be an agent should be licensed as has to post a substantial bond.
Otherwise, any crook, not even associated with your school, could be given money to give to one you your athletes, then make up all sorts of stories how somebody knew or should have know. Which is exactly what just happened to USC.
10:26 pm on June 27th, 2010
ROB (first post),
That is a pretty cavalier attitude and I’ll bet you wouldn’t be signing that tune if it impacted you.
I’m sure Al Capone could spot bully extorting lunch money from a classmate…………………..but that doesn’t mean it would want Al Capone in a position to even be a judge……..let alone sentence the lunch bully to the gallows. does it?
1:31 am on June 28th, 2010
The NCAA has NEVER replied to some article on a “fan site.” As the old saying goes . . . “Methinks the lady doth protest too much”
7:32 am on June 28th, 2010
Yet another article by Brooks backing USC. It really is getting to the point of being ridiculous.
9:15 am on June 28th, 2010
ALL you USC crybabies talking about UM, the sex, drugs and Guns all hearsay that had NOTHING to do with our penalties, just something in your little heads.
9:22 am on June 28th, 2010
How is an article highlighting the glaring difference between punishments Miami (on Dee’s watch ) received for far worse violations, and punishments Dee issued to USC “ridiculous”?
9:34 am on June 28th, 2010
What does Brooks want a CSI moment. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck.
9:44 am on June 28th, 2010
BUSBY, forget the sex , drugs and guns. The NCAA COI found that Miami, under Paul Dee, directly participated in defrauding the Pell Grant system — 100 Miami athletes, at least 40 on the football team, STOLE money from the federal government with the HELP of a Miami staffer. The NCAA also found that Miami PAID football players for touchdowns and dirty hits. The NCAA also found that PAUL DEE interfered with the drug-testing program, thereby allowing ineligible FB players to play.
All of that was NOT hearsay. All of that was in the NCAA’s findings. Yet, despite the University of Miami being DIRECTLY involved in paying at least FORTY FB players, all they got was ONE bowl ban and a loss of 24 schollies. (No forfeiture of games and no vacated NC.)
The same fat b@stard who presided over that circus then turns around and gives USC a TWO-year bowl ban, loss of 30 scholarships, forfeiture of games and a vacated NC, for violations involving ONE FB player and the fact that they THINK one coach mighta, coulda sorta maybe knew after the fact.
In what world does that add up to you?
11:36 am on June 28th, 2010
Folks like Busby only want this USC thing to fry USC and be done with. No interest in what is actually right and just. Slam USC and move on because that is what I demand, waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!
12:40 pm on June 28th, 2010
Could it be that people that are dirty judge everyone by the content of their own heart and cannot believe anyone is clean. I read the NCAA report and was stunned by their findings against Todd McNair . I am not a lawyer but as a reasonable person this report is nonsense. Later I read the McNair response to the NCAA and felt sorry for McNair because something is seriously wrong with the NCAA and Todd McNair has been smeared for life.
12:57 pm on June 28th, 2010
Man you guys sure like to whine about poor little USC. Give me a break. Anyone who thinks they didn’t cheat, Reggie Bush was the only one doing it and Pete Carroll left just to pursue his NFL dream again are painfully ignorant. Carroll can keep his plausible deniability because he was off boning some coed in mailbu instead of watching his guys and coaches. Thats the whole key to theirs and everyone elses cheating. Plausible deniability. You know Saban Kiffen Stoops and every other major college coach knows that if they have that the theyre fine. Damn the torpedoes win or bust.
2:06 pm on June 28th, 2010
Joe, no one is denying that Bush broke the rules and you can “assume” whatever you want about USC, Carroll, Saban, Kiffin, Stoops etc. Don’t let a little thing like facts get in your way.
But it is obvious you have problem comprehending the point of the article, so I’ll summarize:
Miami (with Paul Dee in charge) directly engaged in stealing from the Pell Grant program involving MORE THAN FORTY football players, directly paid FB players for TDs and dirty hits, and (under Dee’s orders) altered the drug monitoring program to allow ineligible FB players to continue playing. More than HALF the NC football team was involved in the Pell Grant Scandal (I’m not even including the other problems in other sports.)
For this, the NCAA gave Miami a ONE year bowl ban and a loss of 24 scholarships. (No forfeits, no loss of NCs.)
USC was found to have ONE FB player and his family involved in receipt of benefits such as hotel stays, free rent, free transportation and a car and concluded that ONE coach PROBABLY knew about it after the fact and USC should have known.
For this, the NCAA (under Dee) gave USC TWO bowl bans, a loss of 30 scholarships, the forfeiture of 15 games and the vacation of a NC.
Now, do you see any problem whatsoever in the disparity of punishments here? If you don’t, you need to go watch Sesame Street.
If you do, but don’t care because you’re more concerned about Schadenfraude, go ahead and enjoy. But don’t be surprised if, down the line, some kid from your favorite team gets busted for accepting a Grand Slam breakfast from a booster at Denny’s and Mike Garret is on the COI, handing your school a 3 year bowl ban and a loss of 40 schollies.
2:21 pm on June 28th, 2010
Great ill look forward to it when the day happens. Until then you guys can whine all you want. What about Lienart and Jarretts apt? Im pretty sure there were more than just allegations against Reggie Bush. Whether or not they had enough evidence to put in the report is another matter for the NCAA lawyers to decide. I think their main point was a lack of institutional control at USC which points to a culture rather than an individual. Im really sorry its so unfair for you guys. Man, coming out of nowhere 8 years ago with Pete “The Cheat” Carroll must have really boosted your egos to disproportionately high levels which would make thses sanctions must sting even more…
2:24 pm on June 28th, 2010
ooops forgot to proof read. “these sanctions sting even more…. “
5:38 pm on June 28th, 2010
What about Leinart’s apt? The NCAA investigated and determined it a non-issue if Jarret makes up the disparity in the rent. LOL @ you justifying your petty hatred based on being “pretty sure” there was more!
Oh - and the NCAA found Miami to have a LOIC, too. (Which should be obvious, considering the rampant abuses there.)
Clearly, you can’t distinguish the blatant disparity in punishments, so a review of Sesame Street would serve you well………
Then again, if you’re under the impression USC came “out of nowhere” when PC took over , you’re probably about 10 or 11 years old and still have the Sesame Street DVDs in your toy box.
8:50 am on June 29th, 2010
Just thought I’d throw it out there. What if Dee, having experienced very similar sanctions and feeling their full weight, was the guy fighting for a lesser punishment? It’s about as logical an argument as any other. But, the article assumes the reverse to be true, because it’s not an interesting article if Dee wasn’t the architect behind maximizing the punishment. Neither is necessarily true, but we have no clue whatsoever who was fighting for what punishment. We only know the end result.
10:50 am on June 29th, 2010
WHY USC MUST CHANGE THEIR MASCOT AND NAME
I read the report, USC and ReggieBush cheated got caught and now have to pay the penalty. Who was on the committee doesn’t change the facts. Yes facts, witnesses, receipts. payment trails, taped conversations, no facts, you got to be kidding me.
The word Delusional comes to mind.
What Miami did 25 years ago was wrong and they paid dearly for it. Now USC must pay.
You guys sound like little kids whinning because they got caught and little Johnny got away.
Miami paid a price guys, you act like they got off scoot free.
USC should change their name from trojans to CRY BABIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11:10 am on June 29th, 2010
USC hadnt done shit in the 20 years before Pete “The Cheat” took over. Get real. There last legit national championship was in 78 if my memory serves me. So yeah they have come out of no where in Modern College football. I dont give a shit what they did in the early 1900’s.
11:12 am on June 29th, 2010
USC had not won anything of significance since ‘78 before Pete “The Cheat” Carroll took over. So yes in relative terms they came out of nowhere as far a modern college football is concerned. I dont think anyone except the hardcore trojoan fellator would care about what they did in the early 1900’s.
8:56 pm on June 29th, 2010
Their are a lot of ignorant comments in this thread!
4:56 pm on July 26th, 2010
usc get real you blame everyone for your cheating grow up Miami did not make that loser coach do what he did now Reggie bush and his dad are to blame come on he was your hero and could never do anything wrong the school suck the place sucks the team sucks and the fan do to and this is why you guys throw the fact that you where winning and the best there was no problem this is what makes you losers when you cheat and win they where super stars when you get busted you don’t think its because the rest of the would is out to get you you don’t blame one two people when the team lived it up you don”t say its the NCAA is not doing its job because the man in charged did something with Miami 25 years ago he is picking on us well i could see that if your team where the gators or noles or hokes but it usc a team miami don’t play and if you guys where worried about image you would not have stole that loser i am a fag lane kiffen so its not over the team should got the death penalty
9:48 pm on August 19th, 2010
Keep hate, because you know that USC is the best program.
9:53 pm on August 19th, 2010
Haters keep hating because they know that usc is rising by a second. This year USC is going to stomp at all the
Pac-10 teams.
9:21 am on December 15th, 2010
with all this said, Paul Dee is a Homo Sexual who likes college boys….
9:23 am on December 15th, 2010
USC will get a reduced sentence, and Paul Dee will be removed from his oversized chair…Maybe McDonalds will hire. He eats there enough!
8:01 pm on May 28th, 2011
Straight from USC’s appeal:
USC is the only school to ever receive both a 2 year bowl ban and a loss of 30 scholarships. Also they are the first team to ever be limited to 75 scholarships in one year, much less three in a row.
With those sanctions you would expect much, much worse than what was “found”.
12:56 pm on May 29th, 2011
Butch Davis is the CLOWN
9:33 pm on June 10th, 2011
It’s finally refreshing to see some acxtual insight as to the injustice done to USC and many of you make good points.
As far as yourself Joe, you either had a Dad or Mom who was a Trojan leave his other Ucla parent, to be this cruel and misinformed as to the details of USC and the rediculous findings and made up Rules the NCAA tried to slander the school with.
One thing would of been to hit USC with a loss of 15 schollies, and 2 years probation, but this BS with making kids miss Bowl games for 1 Ineligible player who played 6 years earlier is rediculous. Not to mention, this BS ‘Vacating’ Wins and championships because if any of you favor this tretament, let’s go back the past 10 and 15 years, since were going back 7 years, and I’d bet my bank account there would not be more than 2 or 3 Schools with NC’s standing. You cant tell me, nor convince me, that not Florida, Auburn, Tennessee, Michigan, tOSU or any school to have won the NC the last 20 years, has not used at least 1 Ineligible player.
The 30 schollarships is rediculous and that alone was the ‘Death Penalty” in and of itself.
Quit your Hate mongering and try to read and get your facts streight, and quit listening to espn, who has been feeding people misinformantion since this Investigation even began.
To those who have taken the time to read over this case and understand USC’s position,and look at this case from both sides, I Thank You sincerely.
Fight On!
7:59 pm on August 16th, 2011
Why the University of Miami should drop football. Followed by USC, Ohio State, Florida, and all the others that have not been caught. Miami is only guilty of being in South Beach which attracts all the rif raf. And I wonder what will happen to Shapiro should he run into a cane fan whose only pleasure in life is to watch cane football.
Also, I think schools should sue boosters and former players in the NFL that do the school wrong.
2:56 am on August 17th, 2011
“The man you hired to replace Erickson, Butch Davis, has a reputation as a straight arrow. ”
The most ironic line of the Wolff piece.
2:07 am on August 25th, 2011
Note all of you Hurricanes out there:
As a Long time supporter of USC and the Trojans, I am not one who wants or wishes any Ill-will upon your school, no matter what the Offenses committed. Do I believe a punishment is Warranted? YES absolutely I do.
However, What I would like to see most happen with this whole Miami Scandal, is to see your former AD Paul Dee, BANNED for Life, from all and any NCAA Events Forever. This scum bag not only screwed USC, but he assisted a great deal in doing Miami one big dis service by allowing a very questionable atmopsphere at the “U” and do feel he should not be let off the hook.
Another thing for all fans of all schools to remember re: Miami. Note: as much as they maybe Guilty and deserve harsh punishment in many peoples minds, I also think that it’s a good lesson to learn, that when one Official or representative of any School, or company or what have you, screws over his or her Institution, just think what that person can do to someone else? Miami, wheather you folks can take this, is very much the victim here, in that the school if they are to suffer a “Death Penalty”, would be brought down by very corrupt minds and ahdy people with agendas and plans of their own to get rich off of others.
These people such as Paul Dee,Shapiros, Loyd Lakes, Michael Michaels care little about the USC’s, Ohio State’s, Auburns, Alabamas, and the “U’s” Interest and future, and those innocent student Athletes, who will noe have to suffer the burden of “Others” wrongdoings and this is crimminal. It’s the same way I feel about USC. People wanted to see USC burned down, yet, fail to see the whole picture. I am for USc having their Sanctions either redone, or exhaunerated completely. 15 schollies for 3 years, a year Bowl Ban, more than fair. I’d Live with such a punishment, and all I could ask of USC, is to take it and learn from it. Same said for Everyone else.
Anyone involved in these scandals, need to be brought before a court and appropriately dealt with. And to the fullest extent possible.