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Ex-Miami AD denies special access for Shapiro

Earlier Wednesday, the Associated Press, citing a person familiar with the situation, reported that former Miami and current Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt approved much of Nevin Shapiro‘s access to the football program. The insinuation, of course, is that approval facilitated much of Shapiro’s alleged showering of football players with impermissible benefits.

In a statement released Wednesday evening, Hocutt denied providing any special access to Shapiro above what other boosters received based on the amount of money they had given to the athletic program.

“There are membership levels within the Hurricane Club at the University of Miami. While I was athletics director, the benefits and experiences Mr. Shapiro received were consistent with those provided to others at his membership level. I never personally approved any special access for Mr. Shapiro to university athletics events or programs.”

Shapiro had been permitted to roam the sidelines during games while Hocutt was athletic director -- a couple of times even leading the Hurricanes out of the tunnel and onto the field before games -- and the AP writes that Hocutt invited Shapiro “to select gatherings reserved for the athletic department’s biggest donors.” Previous reports stated that Shapiro had donated a little less than $150,000 to the university, which wouldn’t seem to be an amount that would cause the former booster to be classified as one of the department’s biggest donors.

“That’s what Kirby did,” the person said. “His No. 1 job was to raise money and this Nevin Shapiro guy was one of the few people Kirby could get to write checks.”

Hocutt was Miami’s athletic director from his hiring in February of 2008 through the same month of this year, when he abruptly left for the same job at Tech. NCAA president Mark Emmert said in a statement today that an investigation into the allegations involving the Miami football program has been ongoing for five months, meaning the start of the NCAA’s official look into the program occurred shortly after Hocutt unexpectedly left for Lubbock.