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Sources: Miami fallout could be severe for Frank Haith

Sources tell CBS Sports that Frank Haith could receive the dreaded "show cause" penalty for his association with former Miami booster, and convicted felon, Nevin Shapiro.

Streeter Lecka

According to CBS Sports' Jeff Goodman, Missouri head coach Frank Haith (and everybody else associated with the University of Miami and the Nevin Shapiro case) could be served with a notice of allegations early this week.

The source told CBSSports.com that the NCAA was unable to prove the allegation from Miami booster Nevin Shapiro that Haith or anyone on his staff paid $10,000 to a family member of former player DeQuan Jones. However, Haith will be charged with unethical conduct because the NCAA did not believe his story that payments to his assistants intended for camp money did not wind up going to repay Shapiro, who made the allegations to Yahoo Sports back in August of 2011. A source said that the money was delivered to Shapiro's mother -- who verified the payment to the NCAA.

Haith will also be charged with a failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance due to impermissible airline travel that was given to the family of two players from a member of his staff and also the interaction between Shapiro and players while on visits. [...]

Those involved in the case will have up to 90 days to respond in writing before a hearing in front of the Committee on Infractions, which likely will be held in mid-June. A decision on the penalties will be handed down to Haith, his staff and those involved in the football aspect of the investigation anywhere from 4-6 months after the hearing. The notice of allegations was expected to be released as early as Tuesday, but a source told CBSSports.com that it could be withheld for another week or two possibly because of procedural questions.

"With everything that's happened recently with the Shabazz Muhammad case, the Todd McNair case in football, the governor of Pennsylvania suing the NCAA and the NCAA firing a lead investigator in this case, they want to make sure on this one," the source said.

Goodman reports that the charges could result in a show-cause penalty for Haith. Here's The Trib's Steve Walentik on the show-cause.

[CBS'] report cited an anonymous source close to the situation saying Haith could receive a multiple-year show-cause penalty, which is an order from the NCAA saying that, for a set period of time, any NCAA penalties imposed on a coach involved in major rules violations at one school will continue to be enforced if he is hired by another school.

Show-cause penalties often end the careers of college coaches. [...]

After the NCAA’s notice of allegations is released, individuals involved in the case will have up to 90 days to respond in writing before having a hearing in front of the Committee on Infractions, which operates independently of the NCAA’s investigative unit. That hearing would likely take place in mid-June. A decision on penalties would likely come at least four months later.

Schools aren’t explicitly prevented from hiring coaches who receive the show-cause penalty, but they can be subject to severe penalties if the coach commits another violation during the length of the penalty.

The penalty has had the effect of blackballing coaches, including former Tennessee Coach Bruce Pearl, former Oklahoma and Indiana Coach Kelvin Sampson, former Baylor Coach Dave Bliss, former Minnesota Coach Clem Haskins and former California Coach Todd Bozeman. Of them, only Bozeman, now at Morgan State, has returned to the college coaching ranks.

The show-cause penalty is a vicious, punitive penalty that has deservedly ended the college careers of quite a few coaches. And from the moment we first saw Haith's name linked with the Shapiro story, we had to know that this was a possibility. Associating yourself with Shapiro was quite likely part of the job description at Miami in the middle part of the last decade, but you have to know what you're getting yourself into there; if Haith indeed was involved with attempting to pay a family for their son's basketball services, he deserves what he may get.

But while we wait for the official notice of allegations, I'll just say this: If Frank Haith receives a show-cause, it better be for reasons better than "We couldn't prove the primary charge against him, but we're going to believe Nevin Shapiro's mother over him." Please, NCAA, tell me you've got more than that. Please. Don't blackball a coach, and link him to incredible sleaze bags like Dave Bliss, Kelvin Sampson and Todd Bozeman because Nevin Shapiro embarrassed you.

And now we wait.

This year sucks.