Greg Cote: NCAA probe of Miami Hurricanes makes mockery of term ?speedy trial?

I?m not sure what the University of Miami and its football program deserve more at this point from the NCAA: a notice of allegations or a letter of apology.

The ?speedy trial? clause of the Sixth Amendment at work in the real world evidently makes too much sense for college sports? judge and jury, and so UM continues to twist in the wind almost 2?1/2 years since Nevin Shapiro first arose publicly from his clandestine sewer bent on bringing down the Hurricanes.

In jurisprudence they say the longer it takes for charges to be brought, the weaker the case ? that at some point an ?investigation? dragging on and on begins to feel like a witch hunt, or to smell like desperation.

Canes fans can only hope.

It was August 2010 when Shapiro, for years a rogue UM booster gone wild, first went public with all the improper benefits he had supposedly lavished upon dozens of players over several years. Yahoo! Sports? expos? one year later made the story national. Now, finally, the NCAA reportedly is close to wrapping its case and presenting its formal notice of allegations to the university.

Meanwhile, Miami is into its fourth calendar year living with this cloud, enjoying not the presumption of innocence but the assumption of guilt. Canes football (and to a much lesser degree men?s basketball) already has served what amounts to a substantial probation during which both reputation and recruiting have taken a hit ? along with the larger, self-imposed penalties already absorbed.

In effect, coach Al Golden already has served two seasons with hands cuffed, jailed, while awaiting trial for alleged crimes others committed. A class of UM football players guilty of nothing, accused of nothing, already has missed out on two bowl games because of self-imposed postseason bans ? plus the honor of playing in this season?s ACC Championship Game, a right earned on the field, then voluntarily sacrificed.

Don?t get this wrong.

I am not saying ?oh poor Miami? and absolving the program of whatever its guilt may be. And I say this even with the knowledge Shapiro ? doing hard time for a $930 million Ponzi scheme, a pyramid inherently fabricated on lies ? might rank among a prosecutor?s least credible witnesses imaginable.

(That is why it was so ludicrous that NCAA investigators supposedly threatened former players that Shapiro?s claims against them would be automatically assumed true if they did not agree to be interviewed. First, that betrays the bedrock presumption of innocence. Second, if you?re going to flip a coin and believe somebody ? should it be the guy whose crime literally makes him a convicted liar? Really!? I?m just asking).

Even if one holds Shapiro as a maggot on life?s food chain, though, one must admit the detail of his allegations lends credence, and so, even more so, do the university?s preemptive actions.

You do not do what UM already has done in terms of volunteered penalties unless you are sure you have been guilty of something. In this case that would be a lack of institutional control in terms of identifying Shapiro as a reptile and stopping him sooner.

What I am saying here is that Miami already has substantially served its time and paid its price ? to a degree that sanctions yet to come should be modest. That is, if fairness still has a place among the NCAA?s intentions.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/15/3182681/ncaa-probe-of-miami-hurricanes.html

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