KEARNEY, N.J. – A University of Miami booster, incarcerated for his role in a $930 million Ponzi scheme, has told Yahoo! Sports he provided thousands of impermissible benefits to at least 72 athletes from 2002 through 2010.

In 100 hours of jailhouse interviews during Yahoo! Sports’ 11-month investigation, Hurricanes booster Nevin Shapiro described a sustained, eight-year run of rampant NCAA rule-breaking, some of it with the knowledge or direct participation of at least seven coaches from the Miami football and basketball programs. 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.

Also among the revelations were damning details of Shapiro’s co-ownership of a sports agency – Axcess Sports & Entertainment – for nearly his entire tenure as a Hurricanes booster. The same agency that signed two first-round picks from Miami, Vince Wilfork and Jon Beason, and recruited dozens of others while Shapiro was allegedly providing cash and benefits to players. In interviews with federal prosecutors, Shapiro said many of those same players were also being funneled cash and benefits by his partner at Axcess, then-NFL agent and current UFL commissioner Michael Huyghue. Shapiro said he also made payments on behalf of Axcess, including a $50,000 lump sum to Wilfork, as a recruiting tool for the agency.

In an effort to substantiate the booster’s claims, Yahoo! Sports audited approximately 20,000 pages of financial and business records from his bankruptcy case, more than 5,000 pages of cell phone records, multiple interview summaries tied to his federal Ponzi case, and more than 1,000 photos. Nearly 100 interviews were also conducted with individuals living in six different states. In the process, documents, photos and 21 human sources – including nine former Miami players or recruits, and one former coach – corroborated multiple parts of Shapiro’s rule-breaking.

While the NCAA declined comment, Miami associate AD for communications Chris Freet told Yahoo! Sports the school has been cooperating with an NCAA probe to unravel claims the booster has made to investigators. He added that the university unsuccessfully sought an interview with the booster last summer.

Rob Henry, the Purdue QB job is yours.

Supposedly Marve still isn't 100% and probably wasn't starting the season but I would imagine that his time at Purdue is done.

I picture BRick makin' it rain at the Buffalo Wild Wings.

Think about how much more shit is going down in West Lafayette that a guy would leave the VIP strip clubs, steak dinners, and prostitution of Miami to go to Purdue.

I picture BRick makin' it rain at the Buffalo Wild Wings.

If even half of this stuff is true, and I think it's pretty much all true and most of it verifiable, then if Miami doesn't get the death penalty then no other program will ever get it again.

Kudos to Yahoo! sports. They are quickly becoming the best investigative sports site on the web.

Missouri has had about the worst year you can have.


The coach jumps ship to basketball powerhouse Arkansas.

Maybe I'm just naive, but I'm pretty sure no one is paying for hookers at Ball State for players. Almost no one even buys tickets. Besides, I can't think of a better reason to play for Akron than a Muncie prostitute. And I don't recall the wild Florida International scandals, either, so its not just the thing you do when you get to Hialeah.

Think about how much more shit is going down in West Lafayette that a guy would leave the VIP strip clubs, steak dinners, and prostitution of Miami to go to Purdue.

I picture BRick makin' it rain at the Buffalo Wild Wings.