The Miami Hurricanes are going to have to brace for impact from the NCAA following an investigation into their recruitment of the Cavinder twins Haley and Hanna to their basketball program.
According to SI’s Pat Forde and Ross Dellenger, the NCAA will sanction Miami for NIL-based recruitment violations of the two social media starlets. Per the report, the sisters dined at Miami booster John Ruiz’s home prior to their commitment, in violation of several NCAA rules.
“The meeting was in violation of several NCAA recruiting rules. The NCAA describes it as “impermissible contact,” and the chef-prepared dinner provided by Ruiz is classified as a recruiting “inducement.” Though these rules have become murky since the NIL era launched on July 1, 2021, boosters are prohibited from associating with prospects or providing them improper benefits. That’s a point the committee wanted to make—the NCAA is still in the business of rules enforcement even in the changing landscape of player compensation from boosters,” Dellenger wrote.
For their part, Miami already accepted their punishments from the NCAA for the infractions. Head coach Katie Meier accepted a three-game suspension at the beginning of the 2022-23 season that she has already served.
Dellenger reported that the other punishments are as follows:
- One-year probation, which could result in more severe sanctions if the program violates rules during that time.
- A $5,000 fine plus 1% of the women’s basketball budget.
- A 7% reduction in the number of official visits during the 2022–23 academic year.
- A reduction of nine recruiting days in 2022–23.
- A three-week probation on recruiting communications by staff members starting with the opening of the transfer portal on March 13.
While the NCAA did not sanction the Cavinder twins as a matter of policy, their most controversial decision might have been to not sanction John Ruiz at all.
The NCAA and the University of Miami would have been well within their rights to disassociate Ruiz from the program. But they ultimately decided not to.
That doesn’t mean that Ruiz’s actions not getting penalized will become the standard though.