UM women’s basketball program hit with NCAA sanctions for Cavinder twins’ recruitment

The recruitment of basketball playing twins and TikTok stars Haley and Hanna Cavinder has resulted in NCAA sanctions for the University of Miami women’s program — the first NCAA ruling regarding an NIL-related deal.

The school and the NCAA announced Friday that after a four-month investigation, it was determined that Hurricanes women’s basketball coach Katie Meier facilitated a meeting between the twins and high-profile booster John Ruiz, who the NCAA said provided the Cavinders an impermissible meal in April 2022 while they were in the transfer portal after leaving Fresno State.

“As a result of the violation,’’ UM announced in a release, “Coach Meier was suspended for the first three regular season games this season, the Department of Athletics will be placed on one year of probation, the women’s basketball program will serve restrictions, and the institution will pay financial penalties.”

No other UM sports teams were sanctioned.

Ruiz, a Miami attorney, drew attention to the meeting by posting a photo of himself with the Cavinder family on Twitter. Under NCAA rules, boosters are prohibited from associating with prospects or giving them improper benefits or inducements, including meals.

Ruiz, 56, previously told the Miami Herald he had met with NCAA representatives on UM’s campus in June 2022 to share information about the realm of name, image and likeness — commonly known as NIL — and how he puts his deals together. He has paid millions of dollars in NIL deals to more than 100 athletes, most from Miami, to promote his companies LifeWallet and/or Cigarette Racing Team. And he has posted details of many deals on social media. He inked a deal with the Cavinder twins, who have four million TikTok followers.

Ruiz told the Miami Herald on Friday afternoon that he did not provide a dinner for the twins and their family and representatives and that the NCAA’s ruling was “silly” and Katie Meier was “sanctioned for something that’s benign.’’

“It’s pretty shameful that they involved two stellar young ladies and a great coach in Katie Meier that did nothing wrong, with some technicality that they want to try to hang their hat on. The bigger picture is these rules are intended to make sure that no student-athlete goes to the school because people are enticing them to go. And there’s no indication that anybody enticed anyone to do anything.’’

He added that “ultimately, there was no dinner.’’

“I’m very specific about what I do because I know what’s permissible and what isn’t permissible. They simply came with their parents, we had a discussion and there was nothing of value exchanged.’’

According to the report, Ruiz and Meier met during a university event for administrators, staff, and donors.

“Although the head coach did not personally know the booster, she was aware that he was a prominent businessman and involved in name, image and likeness activities with student-athletes at the school,” the NCAA report said. “At the event, the booster and his family approached the coach to talk about the prospects’ upcoming visit to the university.

“The head coach later called the booster to learn more about him and his work, unaware that the booster had already been in touch with the prospects’ agent, until the booster informed the coach that the prospects’ agent had initially declined a meeting during their upcoming visit to campus. Regardless, the booster informed the head coach that he was “here to help” and wanted women’s basketball to be “huge” at Miami.”

Meier then asked an assistant coach to contact the twins and let them know Ruiz was a “legitimate businessperson” and they agreed to meet with him. Ruiz then worked through their agent to arrange the meeting.

Ruiz noted that although he is a booster when it comes to giving money to the school or athletic programs, “they cannot peg me as a booster [in NIL situations]. Somebody commits to the University of Miami and they announce it to the coaches and everybody knows. And then they talk to somebody about putting an NIL deal together and they’re saying you can’t talk to them. What country are they living in?

“They [the NCAA] just haven’t gotten sued. But if they raised that in any court, they would get slammed.’’

Meier already served a three-game suspension at the start of this season for the infraction, and on Friday the NCAA announced further sanctions for the women’s basketball program, including a one-year probation, a fine of $5,000 and 1 percent of the program budget, a reduction in official visits and recruiting days.

Meier took responsibility for the mistake.

“For over 30 years, I have led my programs with integrity and have been a collaborative partner with the NCAA. Collegiate athletics is in transformation, and any inadvertent mistake I made was prior to a full understanding of implemented guardrails and the clarification issued by the NCAA in May,” Meier said in a statement. “We all look forward to a time when there is a national solution to help our student-athletes, coaches and institutions. I am happy this matter is resolved as I continue to focus on mentoring and developing our student-athletes and winning games for the University of Miami.”

The NCAA staff conducted a “comprehensive investigation” across multiple UM sports to determine if there were violations of the Name, Image, Likeness rules.

“That investigation included a review of all communications, among other records, between institutional staff members and a representative of the institution’s athletics interests as well as dozens of interviews,” the release said. “Ultimately, the only violation in the case resulted from Coach Meier’s communications with a representative of the institution’s athletics interests. The University, student-athletes, coaches, and administrators cooperated fully with the NCAA enforcement staff throughout the investigation.”

Meier is Miami’s all-time leader in women’s basketball wins with 338, is a past Associated Press national coach of the year, has coached USA Basketball national teams, is a member of the Miami Sports Hall of Fame and the Hall of Honor at her alma mater Duke, where she still holds records.

UM men’s basketball coach Jim Larranaga, whose 13th-ranked Hurricanes play at home against Florida State Saturday, was asked his reaction to the news about the women’s program. He said: “I’m so focused on preparing my team for Florida State. I do not want to be distracted by any other topic. My feeling is `Tell me what the rules are and we’ll follow them.’ That’s it. My staff and I are committed to doing things the right way and I know our department does, too. “

The university added in its statement a plea to the NCAA to review its bylaws and consider revising any that are outdated in today’s college sports landscape.

“Coach Meier and the University have accepted responsibility, and this Negotiated Resolution allows us to move forward and is in the best interests of Coach Meier, our student-athletes and our University. However, the University encourages the membership to review NCAA bylaws that have been on the books for decades and may no longer be applicable or realistic in today’s environment. The sanctions that we ultimately agreed to, to bring this to a close, are not commiserate with the violation or its intent. Coach Meier is an outstanding coach, role model, teacher and valued member of the Hurricane Family and we stand fully behind her, her program and our ongoing departmental compliance efforts.”

Last June, Ruiz told the Herald his “dialogue between numerous people” on campus in Coral Gables involved “a gentleman and two females” from the NCAA. He said the meeting was cordial and not accusatory.

“I was asked by the university to go discuss how I put my deals together,’’ Ruiz said. “It was big-picture. I don’t think it was anything accusatory or anything like, ‘I got you’ or ‘I’m going to get you.’ Nothing like that. I actually enjoyed it.’’

Added Ruiz back then: “I did agree that the content of what we discussed wouldn’t be discussed [publicly]. I can’t discuss anything in specifics.’’