Image Source: (The Miami Herald)

BY TOM MARTIN

ANCHOR MEGAN MURPHY

You're watching multisoruce sports news analysis from Newsy.

If it’s still “All About The U” -- it may not be any longer.

The NCAA is investigating the University of Miami football and basketball programs for ties to a convicted Ponzi schemer named Nevin Shapiro -- who claims he provided thousands of impermissible benefits to current and former Miami athletes from 2002 to 2010.

Yahoo! Sports’ Dan Wetzel reports:

“Shapiro said the benefits included cash gifts, lavish parties held at his multi-million dollar homes and yachts, access to prostitutes, paid trips to high-end restaurants and nightclubs, jewelry, bounties for on-field actions -- including injuring opposing players -- and travel for unofficial visits for Hurricane recruits and their families.”

The Miami football program is particularly under fire -- most of the 72 Hurricane athletes under Shapiro’s wing were football players. But when Shapiro got into legal trouble, he says the players he once considered family refused to return the favor -- giving him incentive to blow the whistle.

So where does this rank on the scandal scale? As Sports blog Dr. Saturday writes, it could be the largest in NCAA history:

“There is no equivalent in the last quarter-century of the number of players, the amount of money, the extent of the opulence or the level of entrenched access of the booster in question, Nevin Shapiro, who now ranks among the most infamous figures in the history of the sport, overnight.”

CBS 4 in Miami spoke with Shapiro for comment on his actions:

“Meanwhile, Shapiro is now serving a twenty-year prison term, but thinks UM football’s punishment will be worse: ‘I could tell you what I think is gonna happen: Death penalty.’”

The Death Penalty -- it’s the NCAA’s atomic bomb. The last school to receive the punishment was Southern Methodist -- once a football powerhouse, the program has struggled to regain relevance since its shutdown in 1987.

Despite its scope, the Miami case doesn’t deserve the worst -- so says GatorSports’ Pat Dooley:

“I don’t think Miami will get the death penalty … SMU was a conspiracy to pay a lot of players over a long period of time and when the SMU boosters were caught they didn’t stop. This is different. Really, really bad, but different.”

Miami may be the culprit, but Sporting News’ Matt Hayes takes it a step further: he blames the NCAA and even proposes a separation:

“The 50 or so biggest college football programs would break away from the NCAA, start their own association and get down and dirty … Now, in this offseason of nonstop NCAA violations, it has to be seen as an option because the game has begun to eat itself in a horrifying example of greed and gluttony.”

The spotlight extends from Miami all the way to places like Missouri.  Mizzou’s brand new basketball coach Frank Haith was allegedly one of many Miami coaches aware of the violations.

'Like' Newsy on Facebook for updates in your news feed.

Get more mutlsource video news analysis from Newsy

Transcript by Newsy