Miami Hurricanes Football Scandal: Biggest Culprit Behind 'Canes Controversy

The NCAA is heavily investigating the Miami Hurricanes, and the blame needs to be placed on someone. 

Should school officials be blamed? Or does the blame fall on all those student athletes who took the improper benefits from a former booster? 

Both are clearly at fault here because they should all know better, but most of the blame is placed on head officials at Miami. 

They know the Hurricanes have had past problems with players receiving gifts and services from outside sources, and they should have kept a tighter watch on their program.

Those in charge should have cracked the whip harder on the Hurricanes, and the fact that they were so lenient with everything is mind-boggling.

Nevin Shapiro, a former booster and now a convicted felon for his role in a $930 million Ponzi scheme, claims he spent millions of dollars during 2002-2010 on at least 72 Miami Hurricane players, 12 of which are on the current roster. Shapiro also claims that at least six coaches were aware of what he was doing.  

A report from Yahoo! Sports states that Shapiro admits to spending millions of dollars for Miami players over the years. Reporter Charles Robinson explains just how much Shapiro did. 

"At a cost that Shapiro estimates in the millions of dollars, he said his benefits to athletes included but were not limited to cash, prostitutes, entertainment in his multimillion-dollar homes and yacht, paid trips to high-end restaurants and nightclubs, jewelry, bounties for on-field play (including bounties for injuring opposing players), travel and, on one occasion, an abortion."

Yes, Shapiro is partially to blame as well because he is the one forking over all of this money, but realistically, he never should have been around the Hurricanes.  

He started off as a booster for the school, and to say that the school didn't notice this flashy millionaire constantly hanging out with their players is just absurd.

The players should know better than to take hundreds and even thousands of dollars from Shapiro. They put their eligibility in danger, as well as the school they attended. Going to sex parties and taking $15,000 to $40,000 is something a student athlete shouldn't be doing. 

But it's no secret that Miami is a party city, and that alone entices athletes to play for them, which means the folks in charge have to make sure they keep their players from wanting to party and live the high life. They're in college, and that is what they should be focusing on, but the head officials at Miami had no control of their program.  

You would think they would crack down on everything and run a tight ship at Miami, but that wasn't the case. Shapiro was able to do whatever he wanted, and nobody stopped him from doing all of this. 

Former Miami athletic director Paul Dee is the one who announced that the USC Trojans would receive extreme punishment for their violations with Reggie Bush.

Dee said that USC had a lack of institutional control, when he is the one who was the athletic director during the time Shapiro was dropping millions on his players. Who is really the one who had no control? 

He let Shapiro run the team out of the tunnel, be on the sidelines for all the games and even honored him on the field once.   

Miami knew this was all coming, which is why they hired a new head coach and a new athletic director. They get a chance to start fresh, which maybe means all the problems will be gone at Miami.

Unfortunately, the Hurricanes will suffer harsh penalties by the NCAA, and they will struggle to be a winning program for years. You have to feel for Al Golden, who took over as head coach not knowing a thing about this.   

Yes, players should know better, but in the end they are just kids. A lot of them come from poor areas, and when some guy is willing to give them money they're going to take it.

However, president Donna Shalala and the past employees in the athletic department deserve the bulk of the blame. It all starts with those at the top, and they should be able to make sure they're running a clean program.

The adults in charge weren't doing their job, and therefore they are the ones to blame.       

-Eric Bowman