NCAA president Mark Emmert uttered the words yesterday that anyone associated with the University of Miami and its storied football programs has been hoping they would not hear. Â Read more after the jump.
The so-called “death penalty” could be in play if the governing body for intercollegiate sports finds the shocking allegations of widespread illegal benefits at Miami reported earlier this week are true.
“If, and I say if, we have very unique circumstances where TV bans and death penalties are warranted, then I don’t think they are off the table and I would be OK with putting those in place,” Emmert told The Associated Press in a telephone interview yesterday.
Since Tuesday’s report by Yahoo! Sports alleging impermissible benefits to 72 football players over a nine-year span, the possibility of the NCAA enacting the death penalty for just the second time ever against a football program has become the paramount issue.
Emmert’s comments are foreboding for Miami. Several outlets have reported the NCAA had informed Miami officials that it will consider invoking its “willful violators” clause, which would pave the way for the death penalty to be invoked.
Instead of considering violations from 2007-2011, the NCAA can go back to 2002, when former booster Nevin Shapiro claims he began providing Hurricanes players with benefits.
“I will say that the university is being extremely cooperative and that is extremely helpful,” Emmert said. “But if, and I underline the word if, the allegations are true, that’s extremely disappointing.”
Handing down the death penalty would be easier than implementing it. Unlike the death penalty case involving SMU in 1987, when there were not substantial TV contracts in place, eliminating football at Miami, one of the nation’s marquee programs, could have far-reaching legal impact.
ESPNÂ and the ACC, of which Miami is a member, signed a 12-year, $1.86 billion deal last summer. Sources at two leagues and several in television told The Post they would not be surprised if ESPN sought to have contract reworked should Miami be banned.
“We are not going to speculate on a hypothetical situation,” ESPN told The Post in a statement.
Emmert, in a recent USA Today interview, acknowledged there are a myriad of issues to consider in 2011 that did not exist in 1987.
“You have to recognize that, today, inflicting that penalty on any one school has a lot of collateral damage to other members of the conference, around media contract rights and a variety of things,” he said. “So you wouldn’t enter into it casually.”
