:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/21582861/20130302_jla_ad9_485.0.jpg)
Missouri basketball coach Frank Haith will have to sit five games and Aubrey Hill probably won't be returning to the SEC (or anywhere else in college) under the ruling issued today by the NCAA in the Miami (FL) and Nevin Shapiro investigation. But that's about all the fallout for the conference in a report that took months to produce and ultimately cost the Hurricanes two bowl bids, a spot at the ACC Championship Game and nine scholarships.
Haith is suspended for the first five games of Missouri's schedule under the ruling. I haven't had time to read the 102-page report in detail, but here's how the Association summarized Haith's behavior while he was head coach at Miami:
Specifically, the former head men's basketball coach knew that the booster made threats about a potential violation in the program, the former head men's basketball coach took steps to assist former assistant men's basketball coach A with funds to pay the booster, rather than report any concerns to the athletics compliance office. The former head men's basketball coach did not inquire into the relationship between the booster and former assistant men's basketball coaches A and B.
As for Aubrey Hill, later a Florida assistant coach and at the time of the Shapiro allegations an assistant coach at Miami, this is what the committee found:
Former assistant football coach C knowingly engaged in unethical conduct including the offer of impermissible inducements and benefits and providing false or misleading information to the enforcement staff in the investigation of this case.
That's a two-year show-cause, which doesn't bar Hill from being hired, but makes it very hard to hire him. Any school that does it will have to explain to the NCAA why it did, while Hill will face some punishment. And it's basically paint a big bull's eye on the back of which ever school hires him -- assuming that Hill's worth it. Alligator Army would probably not write a letter of recommendation.
While Andre Debose's 2011 reign of nine-route terror happened under Hill, no wide receiver had more than 21 catches in 2011 ... and Hill's departure left the 2012 wide receiving corps in the stewardship of graduate assistant Bush Hamdan, who has also since left the program.
The punishments for Miami, meanwhile, probably fit the crime. It's essentially taken a two-year bowl ban, reportedly held back some scholarships and will lose nine over the next three years. That might not be a lot, but it ain't nothing, and the NCAA investigation has been so tainted by the Association's admitted misconduct that anything more would be suspect and would invite a lengthy court battle.
Which doesn't change my consistent refrain after the problems with the investigation surfaced: Mark Emmert should resign. His leadership is tainted and the NCAA is tainted, both beyond belief (even if, like myself, you're not in the "abolish the NCAA" camp). Perhaps the NCAA wouldn't and shouldn't have done anything more than it did to Miami, but the fact that it essentially couldn't because of the mistakes of its leadership is reason enough for a housecleaning. Miami faced the appropriate punishment for its wrongdoing; it's time for Mark Emmert to face the appropriate punishment for his.