***This post has already been updated***
Well then! This ought to be fun.
- First thing to remember for Miami fans: Yahoo's investigative reporting staff is extremely talented, thorough and well respected. Their track record speaks for itself. Proceed with that in mind.
- The NCAA's investigation is going to take a long time. We're not sure right now which, if any, information in Charles Robinson's story is new to the NCAA. Robinson and Yahoo's staff spoke to a lot of sources, we also don't know which of those sources have also spoken to the NCAA.
- The first thing that Miami needs to do is find out the extent of Shapiro's involvement with players currently on the team. Here's the list of current players that according to Robinson had contact with Shapiro: Ray Ray Armstrong, Travis Benajmin, Dyron Dye, Marcus Forston, Jacory Harris, Aldarius Johnson, JoJo Nicolas, Adewale Ojomo, Marcus Robinson, Sean Spence, Vaughn Telemaque, and Olivier Vernon. Yahoo has yet to provide any specifics on any incidents involving these players, although Robinson does note in his story that a few of those players were "delivered" to Shapiro so he could make "recruiting pitches." That specific allegation could really entail anything, and Miami needs to get to the bottom of what exactly went on, so that it can make its own judgement on whether or not those players are eligible to play this season, if the NCAA doesn't do that first.
- It seems as if the lavishness of Shapiro's gifts tailed off towards the end of the decade. My best guess here is that any involvement with current players was on the more innocuous side of things (think paid dinners) which means that they may get suspended in some fashion. The host of Ohio State players that traded memorabilia for tattoos, as well as Georgia's A.J. Green, who sold a jersey for money, were both suspended for about half of a season. In my estimation, that's what we'll be looking at with any current player.
UPDATES
- Individual player pages are now live on Yahoo's site. As I predicted, most of the stuff involving current recruits are on the less sensational side of things. If the players cop to playing pool for cash at Shapiro's house they will get suspended, but probably not for the duration of the season.