Charles Robinson's promised "10 out of 10" story definitely dropped today, with an unimaginably large amount of allegations leveled at the University of Miami by disgraced booster and Ponzi schemer Nevin Shapiro. We in the media/blogosphere overuse terms like "bombshell" to describe investigative reports, but holy cow, does this one qualify.
The issue in SEC land is that the mess is not solely contained in Coral Gables.
First up are former assistant coaches who Shapiro says knew about his largess towards players and recruits. On that front, he names current UF wide receivers coach Aubrey Hill (allegations), current Alabama offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland (allegations), and current Alabama director of football operations Joe Pannunzio (allegations). All three were hired last winter after Miami fired Randy Shannon and new coach Al Golden chose to not retain many staff members. Alabama and Florida did not make anyone available for comment.
Shapiro also said that he provided some recruits with impermissible benefits who went on to sign with SEC schools. Namely, those guys are Bryce Brown of Tennessee (allegations), Orson Charles of Georgia (allegations), Andre Debose of Florida(allegations) and Matt Patchan of Florida(allegations). Shapiro has been working with the NCAA since April, so they've received a lot, if not all, of his copious documentation. It goes without saying that these guys' past and present eligibility could be in question.
We'll follow this story as it develops, but it's a really big mess for college football.
UPDATE
The University of Florida released a statement regarding Hill:
"While we declined comment for Yahoo’s request, Coach Hill indicated he was very comfortable with, and very confident in how he conducted himself while at the University of Miami."