Bad timing for Miami? NCAA in crackdown mode

With a laundry list of spectacular allegations against a high-profile donor, dozens of athletes and perhaps coaches, Miami (Fla.) has moved into the cross hairs of an NCAA vowing to crack down on serious miscreants.

"If -- and I'm underscoring if -- these allegations are true," NCAA President Mark Emmert told USA TODAY on Wednesday, "this is a case that points to all the fundamental problems we have with booster and third-party engagement and third-party activity going on, swirling around a program.

"We'll just to have wait and see what the real facts are when it's finalized, and we'll go from there. But this is very troubling, and it points out the real need for us to make changes and to make them thoughtfully and aggressively."

The NCAA began moving last week, when Emmert orchestrated a retreat for more than 50 university CEOs and about a dozen school and conference athletics officials. They plotted reforms in a number of areas including rules enforcement.

There, Emmert has called for simplifying the rulebook to focus on more egregious violations and hitting perpetrators with stiffened sanctions "that, when they're imposed, provide serious second thoughts for anybody who thinks they can engage in this kind of behavior with impunity."

Asked if a return to the "death penalty" – shutting down a program for a year or more, a sanction already in the books but used only once against a major-college program (Southern Methodist in 1987) – would serve that purpose, he said, "We need to make sure that we've got, for the committee on infractions, all the tools they need to create those kinds of deterrents.

"If that includes the death penalty, I'm fine with that."

Emmert is targeting changes, including those in the enforcement process and penalties, by next April.

He said it's premature to speculate whether the new procedures and penalties would apply to cases, such as Miami's, that began prior to those revisions taking effect.

Source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomCollegeMensBasketball-TopStories/~3/fhcGY7tEnTY/1