Miami Dodges Bowl Ban, but NCAA Yanks Scholarships

The University of Miami's football program will lose nine scholarships—three for each of the next three years—in retribution for the gifts that rogue booster and Ponzi schemer Nevin Shapiro showered on prospective players, the NCAA announced today. But it won't be banned from playing in bowl games, a possibility that had loomed over the school's 6-0 start, ESPN points out. Miami's basketball program will also lose three scholarships, and the entire athletic department will be on probation for three years.

Former Miami basketball head coach Frank Haith will also be suspended for five games—even though he's currently coaching Missouri—and several former assistant coaches will face suspensions as well. The ruling wraps up a two-and-a-half year saga that began when Shapiro revealed that he'd given cash and jewelry to recruits, and paid for trips, prostitutes, and in one case even an abortion, on players' behalf. Eight players were suspended in connection with the scandal in 2011.