The U in trouble -- again

In addition to destroying the SMU program, the death penalty application in that case also arguably started the destruction of the Southwest Conference.

Ultimately, though, it comes down to money. Miami is a marquee program that draws big TV ratings and therefore is very appealing to the NCAA's TV rightsholders. You damage the ratings potential by taking out a marquee team, the TV networks aren't going to be willing to pay as much for the TV rights.

 

At this stage, if you're an athletic director, seeing Dan Wetzel and Charles Robinson on campus has to be the equivalent of seeing Jim Cantore at your beachfront house in Florida.

And you can make that argument about any marquee program, really. But I think the NCAA could death penalty a program without seriously affecting TV revenue. Doesn't mean they will, but I think they could. With that in mind, Miami's as good an option as any, for the reasons stated above.

 

Yep.

 

Is there a chance they could pull a Baylor and ban them from non-conference games for a period of time? Something like a castration to SMU's Death Penalty?

 

How about a 10-year ban on bowl games? Play for nothing for 10 long years.

 

I may very well be wrong about this, but aren't the conferences -- and not the NCAA -- the ones who sell their own TV rights for football and get all of the TV money? Doesn't almost all of the NCAA's TV money come from CBS (and now Turner) for the men's basketball tournament? If that's the case, I can see why the ACC might not want Miami's football team to get the death penalty or a TV ban, but I don't see why the NCAA should care, at least from a financial standpoint.

 

The NCAA is run by its member schools. The Committee on Infractions is made up of representatives of those schools. They don't want to destroy one of their own again.

That said, I mentioned this a couple pages ago - knighthawk touched on it again - given the climate that exists now this is a perfect opportunity for the NCAA to send a message by shutting them down for a year.

The only question is, do they shut down football, basketball or both? I can't imagine they'd kill both programs so the question becomes, which one do you kill?

You could make the case that it should be basketball first because the head coach was involved in the allegations.

 

If the NCAA shuts down Miami's program, then it will get the pleasure of watching its biggest members flee the organization and start its own. Because the bigger schools know that some version of this shit is happening there, and they don't want to get busted down, either.

The bigger schools' need for the NCAA exists only because of the money from the men's basketball tournament. The big-money sport, football, is practically independent of the NCAA for everything but rules enforcement. The only reason I would see the member schools demanding a crackdown on Miami is if it were some out-of-nowhere school doing great and taking a big share of the pie from the established big schools. But it isn't, it didn't, and it's not, so no death penalty.

 

Correct me if I am wrong, but "death penalty" is not an official term for the sanction, right? That's a name given it by fans/media? Becuase I remember an interview with an NCAA office higher-up that said they didn't realize how great an impact the SMU penalties would have on the program, which is why they're loathe to deliver that punishment again.

 

The old Cleveland State joke still amuses me, primarily because of something like this: The last two programs to receive the death penalty? Morehouse soccer and MacMurray tennis. Those cheating bastards. Think of all the other scandals - Kentucky, Gopher cheating, Alabama, countless more - and those are the two that got shut down.

So maybe the joke needs to be tweaked. The NCAA is so mad at Miami they shut down Mount Union.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_penalty_%28NCAA%29

 

Basketball is a possibility, now you mention it. Who cares about Miami basketball?

Maybe it'll be some combination of the Baylor nonconference thing for basketball, along with a bowl ban for football and maybe a nonconference football TV ban? If you do that, no one of any note will play them in their nonconference slate, so they'll have to load up on FIUs and Coastal Carolinas.