The University of Miami, and former Miami coach/current Missouri coach Frank Haith, will be served with a notice of allegations from the NCAA, according to CBSSports.com’s Jeff Goodman.
The news comes as part of the aftermath from an investigation into former Hurricane booster Nevin Shapiro, who is currently serving time in prison for finanacial crimes and told Yahoo.com’s Charles Robinson in August 2011 about various payments and benefits he gave Miami athletes in his time in connection with the university.
Haith, who is in his second year with the Tigers, is expected to be charged with unethical conduct and failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance, along with his former staff at Miami — Jake Horton, Michael Schwartz and Jorge Fernandez — according to the report.
Haith’s charges could lead to a multiple-year show-cause penalty, Goodman also reported.
That’s the biggest problem for Haith and Missouri at this point. I highly doubt that the Tigers are in any danger of having what happened in Coral Gables blow back on them. That’s unheard of, really. But would Mizzou be able to keep him after all this? Especially if the show-cause goes past, say, two years. As Goodman points out, former Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl got five years for lying to the NCAA about hosting a recruit at a barbecue at this home.
That’s the one thing I’m worried about if I’m Haith. My job security. Most of the infractions had to do with the football team, which is where the investigation was focused to begin with. However, it’s not easy to shake any allegations that come from the NCAA, in terms of keeping whatever job you have, when they have to do with a major investigation.
Also, what will happen to Morton, Fernandez and Schwartz? The program’s those coaches are at are safe as well, I’d imagine — Horton is a Western Kentucky, Schwartz at Fresno State, no word on where Fernandez is now — but with the amount of accusations and charges about to be levied on a bunch of former and current Hurricane staffers, players and officials, I’d assume they get some sort of retroactive punishment as well.
The charges stem from Shapiro’s accusations that Haith and his staff paid Shapiro with money from a basketball camp. Haith told the NCAA that the money went to his assistants.
From Goodman’s report:
However, Haith will be charged with unethical conduct because the NCAA did not believe his story that payments to his assistants intended for camp money did not wind up going to repay Shapiro, who made the allegations to Yahoo Sports back in August of 2011. A source said that the money was delivered to Shapiro’s mother — who verified the payment to the NCAA.
The failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance stems from “impermissible airline travel that was given to the family of two players from a member of his staff and also the interaction between Shapiro and players while on visits” Goodman wrote.
Those involved in the case have up to 90 days to respond.
So what does Missouri do if all goes according to the NCAA’s plan? Let Haith go? Suspend him? Support him? If the program can show the NCAA that Haith has been a model coach since leaving Miami, maybe he gets to keep his job. He’s done a decent job in his first year-and-a-half in Columbia.
Success or not, however brief, when the NCAA labels you a cheater, under circumstances like these, it’s hard to keep any job you have after that. It’ll be interesting to see if Haith keeps his, or what happens to him going forward in general.
David Harten is the editor and founder of The Backboard Chronicles. You can follow him on Twitter at @David_Harten.
