Sports Agenda for Tuesday (1/22/13)
Big Story:
We're getting really close to the U finding out about their penalties and I'll tell you why Hurricanes fans should be very nervous right about now. Plus, the Panthers did their best Marlins impersonation last night and maybe we'll touch on the NFL Draft as well, all in the Agenda.
Quote of the Day:
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." – Yogi Berra
UM Shapiro Scandal:
Ah the plot continues to thicken around The U and the Nevin Shapiro scandal.
Monday, CBSSports.com reported former Miami Hurricanes head coach Frank Haith could be hit with two charges by the NCAA.
The charges would be unethical conduct and failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance.
Taken together, those two charges could result in Haith being hit with the deadly show-cause order by the NCAA.
The show cause order basically states that a team that wants to hire Haith, or currently employs him, must appear before the Committee and whatever penalties from the NCAA the coach had from his previous school would be enforced against the new coaches school.
It's essentially the death penalty for coaches and leads to many being blackballed for a certain time.
Recent examples of this include Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl and former Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson.
It's a punitive penalty from the NCAA and Haith's current employer, the University of Missouri, knew this was a possibility when they hired him.
Now Mizzou may get the choice of firing him or suffering penalties with him staying on the job, mainly recruiting related I'm guessing.
Now, Haith's lawyer talked to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, but parsing what he said, he never denied the report in full. Instead, he attacked the fact the report was released before the NCAA sent its findings out.
"Whoever leaked that or communicated that to CBSSporsline is violating the NCAA confidentiality provisions. And if the NCAA had made a conclusion, we would have received a notice of allegations already. Based on what we know about the evidence, there should not be any allegations against coach Haith," said lawyer Michael Buckner.
So we're not going to totally deny the report, but we are going to attack it for confidentiality purposes.
Okay, so let's get through this…Haith's butt is grass and the NCAA is going to be the lawn mower.
It's also bad news for Mizzou who had a solid recruiting class for this year, but when asked if losing Haith would change a top player's mind, he replied, "No Comment."
But….what about the football team?
Honestly, I'm not sure how much the NCAA can prove of what Shapiro has alleged.
That said, I don't think UM can get off without suffering something.
I'm still curious about whether they get the dreaded lack of institutional control.
As was pointed out to me yesterday, if Randy Shannon told his team to not have anything to do with Shapiro and then the athletic director and president of the school allowed it, that wreaks of no institutional control.
That's the worst charge a school can get hit with, especially if it's in conjunction with other charges.
Now, I can't say for sure UM is heading down that road, but it would make sense.
Plus, remember, if Haith got hit that hard and it only involved one player, how much worse could the football program be for dozens and dozens of athletes?
What will be interesting will be to see if the NCAA can get their hands on Kirby Hocutt, the U's former athletic director.
The coach who should be the most nervous right now is Clint Hurtt.
He's currently the defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator at Louisville.
CBSSports said he's facing "hefty allegations" from the scandal.
CBS specifically labeled Hurtt as facing a violation of unethical conduct including charges of impermissible transportation, impermissible lodging, and impermissible benefits.
Hurtt also said he hasn't received a notice of allegations, according to the U of L.
Louisville was enjoying some recent recruiting success with Hurtt, but he too may be out of a job soon.
Now that the CBSSports report is out there, I expect the NCAA to finally start to move some.
I wouldn't be surprised if the notice of allegations aren't received as early as today.
Once those are out, then we're going to start getting a better idea of what the NCAA could prove.
But, UM may not receive their NOA for another week or so as the NCAA wants to make sure the case is airtight before proceeding, especially after the Shabazz Muhammad fiasco at UCLA.
Buckle up UM fans, this could turn into a VERY bumpy ride.
Panthers: (@ Montreal, 7:30 p.m., Fox Sports Florida)
Say, did anyone catch the number of the train that just ran over the Panthers?
Yikes, they looked like they had weights attached to their ankles while trying to chase the Senators.
That's not a great way to start out in Canada, but they can make up for that by knocking off the Canadiens tonight.
So can the Panthers score after going 0-fer last night?
Tough call, but the Canadiens have been awful recently, so my gut tells me yes.
I'm still looking for more from Huberdeau, but maybe I'm expecting too much from the 19-year-old, time will tell.
Also, guys, how about getting it out of the zone every so often…every time I flipped on the game, Ottawa lived in the Panthers' zone.
No time for draft talk today, we'll get to that soon.
