The University of Miami [8] has declared a number of its football players involved in the recent Nevin Shaprio allegations that have rocked college football [9] indefinitely ineligible.
The decision does not mean any Hurricanes players will miss any time on the field — despite appearing like that is a foregone conclusion. Fans of The U will be holding their collective breath as the move by Miami is merely a preemptive precaution while awaiting NCAA rulings. The players are still eligible to practice, but school officials apparently believe the dozen or so players have, in fact, committed NCAA violations.
Jacory Harris, Sean Spence, Vaughn Telemaque, Ray Ray Armstrong, Travis Benjamin, Aldarious Johnson, Dyron Dye, Marcus Forston, Olivier Vernon, Marcus Robinson, Adewale Ojomo and JoJo Nicholas were all named in the Yahoo! report last week.
The evidence is overwhelming and extremely damaging, so it is hard to believe the NCAA won't rule them ineligible for some extended period of time.
The Miami offense shouldn't take that big of a hit as Johnson and Harris have not lived up to their recruiting hype (Harris might not have started anyway with Stephen Morris pushing for time.) But the Canes defense will take a huge hit as arguably the best four players on that side of the ball have been implicated.
Al Golden is a quality coach who will get the most out of his players, but challenging the Virginia Tech Hokies [10] for the division title is now a pipe dream.
