Miami Football: Rogue Booster Nevin Shapiro Promises More Trouble for Hurricanes

About a month before the college football season started last year, the Miami Hurricanes and the college football world were hit with arguably the the biggest scandal the sport has ever seen (of course, this was before we knew about the Penn State and Sandusky incident).

You might remember this report back in August of last year and everything that came with it. A booster by the name of Nevin Shapiro threw the Miami program under the bus, as he released receipts, bank statements and photos to prove that the university and the teams players were breaking all kinds of NCAA rules for years. Some of the violations included large amounts of cash, prostitution, lodging, food and even an abortion.

While this whole incident has died down a bit, in large part because of what happened at Penn State, Shapiro is now trying to spark things up again. Yes, he's back and ready to try and destroy the Miami program even more.

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The public is going to hate me worse in the next coming months. Shapiro, serving a 20-year sentence for a Ponzi scheme, wrote in numerous e-mails over the past few months. It’s going to be severe and catastrophic. My feelings are getting inflamed and I’m going to pop off pretty soon with regards to them and the NCAA. I’m coming for them both [UM and former players] and I’m going to be successful.

I’m taking that program down to Chinatown and the former players and links to that program. Why? Because the U.S. government lined up 47 former players to testify against me in open court if I went to trial. That in itself is motivation to shove it up their collective [butts].

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Current players who were found to have received improper benefits were suspended last season anywhere from one to six games. They also didn't participate in a bowl game last year, despite being bowl eligible with a 6-6 record.

The NCAA investigation is ongoing, so neither the NCAA nor the university can comment on Shapiro's threats. Although, head coach Al Golden did say that he believes the program is in good hands moving forward.

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“We think the worst is behind us,” coach Al Golden said. “The [current] coaches and 95 percent of the players weren’t here when that thing went on. There’s a shift by the NCAA to go after the perpetrators and that’s not us.”

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There were a total of 72 players included in the Yahoo report back in August, but Shapiro now says he provided improper benefits to 114 current or former athletes.  

While we likely won't see a punishment handed down by the NCAA until this summer, it's really going to be interesting to see what else Shapiro has in store. It's really difficult to believe he has anything else to add that he didn't already include in a very lengthy and detailed report last year.

Regardless of how this ends up playing out, it doesn't look like this scandal is going away anytime soon.

Randy Chambers is a B/R featured columnist that covers college football and the NFL. You can contact him @Randy_Chambers or [e-mail].