Miami’s soft sanctions another dagger to USC

Here’s the way I see it. If I’m wrong, let me know.

USC had one player accept a significant amount of money — perhaps as much as $100,000 — from agents unconnected with and unbeknownst to the school. The team had 30 scholarships revoked as punishment by the NCAA.

Ohio State had at least 10 players, under the direct knowledge of the head coach, take approximately $15,000 and some tattoos in exchange for their gear and other paraphernalia. They got nine scholarships revoked.

Oregon was proven to have paid a man upwards of $25,000 to illegally pay for countless recruits’ visits to the school. They got two scholarships taken.

And that brings us to Miami. It’s hard to describe the extent of Miami’s infractions. When Yahoo! Sports first broke the story back in 2011, there were cries for the Hurricanes to be given the death penalty. Booster Nevin Shapiro, currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for money laundering in a Ponzi scheme, estimates he provided more than $2 million in impermissible benefits to Miami football players in the 2000s.

Shapiro provided players with strippers, prostitutes and even cocaine both in hotel rooms and on his own yacht. He even paid for an abortion when a player got one of the prostitutes pregnant. On Tuesday, the NCAA finally announced their sanctions against Miami: In addition to the school’s self-imposed two-year bowl ban the Hurricanes had already served, they would forfeit a total of nine scholarships.

Each of these, progressively, sent Trojan fans through the roof. It was hard to rationalize the relative severity of the crimes — but then again, what was ever rational about the NCAA? They even went so far as to say that they are not a court of law and not bound by precedent.

But what about logic? How can anyone say that what happened at USC is worse than what went on at Miami? You can’t. What happened at USC is a gross travesty of justice. But you know what? It would have also been a travesty of justice had Miami (or Oregon or Ohio State) been saddled with the same restrictions.

Bowl bans hurt recruiting, of course. And they hurt the bottom line of the athletic department. But they do not hurt like scholarship reductions do.

Sometime during the fourth quarter of USC’s loss to Notre Dame on Saturday I noticed 5-foot-11, 175-pound walk-on wide receiver Robby Kolanz jog to his position. In my line of sight, he passed right past 6-foot-3, 340-lb. Notre Dame nose tackle Louis Nix III. I was scared. If Nix tackles Kolanz, I thought, that poor kid is going to the hospital for sure.

Of course, that’s stupid. Kolanz has taken his fair share of football hits before and earned his spot on the team. He’s only an inch shorter and 10 pounds lighter than receivers Nelson Agholor and De’Von Flournoy. Plus, given the relative positions of Kolanz and Nix, it was unlikely they would come in contact.

But still, it reinforced the true impact of the NCAA’s sanctions on USC, now more than three years old: lower numbers aren’t just a detriment to the win column, they are a legitimate danger to players.

And I’m not talking about players who are not D-I athletes in the “athlete” sense, being thrust onto the field with Louis Nix (which, for the record, would absolutely terrify me, and I am more or less Kolanz’ exact height and weight). What I mean is just how thin a team gets stretched.

It becomes a vicious cycle. The low numbers lead to the necessity for players to take more repetitions. More reps lead to more injuries, which lead to even lower numbers and so on. Not only is it unfair, it is dangerous.

So Trojan fans, don’t be upset because the NCAA didn’t drop the hammer on Miami (or Oregon or Ohio State or Auburn or Michigan or North Carolina or … You get the picture). They might have been wrong with USC, but that doesn’t mean they also need to be wrong with every decision they make in the future. One school being impacted the way USC has is more than enough.

Be happy that the NCAA appears to have come to its senses. Do you really want to revel in the wrongful demise of another school? (OK maybe a little bit, but think about it). A two-year bowl ban and nine scholarships for Miami are no joke.

But a two-year bowl ban and 30 scholarships? At this point, it’s hard to call it anything else.

“Any Given Saturday” runs on Thursdays, ironically. To explain to Nick how this makes no sense, or comment on this column, email him at [email protected] or visit 

dailytrojan.com.