Two different things going on here, I think: There's that "limited immunity", that MAY explain at least the speed with which the NCAA publicly cleared any eligibility issues for certain players. In the case of our players who were cleared, as Florida kids who merely made recruiting visits but never committed, I believe they had little to fear from the NCAA regarding their eligibility, but indicating an open willingness to recount what they remember of those visits may have expedited the normally plodding pace of NCAA decision-and-public-announcement processes.
This business of Miami itself suspending eligibility of eight players (that's the figure I heard earlier today, 8 including Jacory Harris and 7 other starters), then immediately appealing to the NCAA to rule on their eligibility, is something else entirely, a slippery little loophole we've seen used recently--and successfully--by Auburn just last year. If you'll recall, they pulled this same thing with Cam Newton during game week right after those charges about Cecil and pay-for-play appeared to be substantiated. Worked beautifully, too. His eligibility was restored "pending full review and investigation", which has supposedly continued to this day. Chizic and the Auburn boosters can pretend they are being treated unfairly, but the fact is that Newton got to finish the season, win the Heisman, lead his team to a national Championship and sign a 1st-pick contract in the NFL, the University and their fans have long since had their parties, reaped the post-season benefits and moved on, and STILL no price has been paid, no consequences have fallen on anyone. I believe they did what they did EXPECTING to eventually have it rendered officially null-and-void, but decided that it was worth it if sufficiently deferred.
Over at Ohio State, it is starting to look as if those ridiculous-in-their-weakness "self-imposed sanctions" (read "tap ourselves with a limp noodle") may actually be accepted by the NCAA with little or no further punishment. At least that's the common word out there among sports writers and bloggers; the same people who were howling for their heads and deriding those very sanctions as absurdly inadequate, a transparent attempt to see if they could mitigate "the REAL punishment", now seem to be participating in a general effort to change the tone and overall attitude towards the tOSU scandal, at least to "slot" it and all the rest of the "violators" somewhere on a line between "squeaky clean" and scUM.
Miami themselves looked at these procedural fake-outs and thought, "Maybe we can at least save THIS season--get to keep our best guys one more year and then let 'em move on LONG before this mess begins to get untangled..." It's exactly what criminal organizations under judicial assault do: hunker down and minimize the damage right in front of them, continue to do "business as usual" and make as much money as possible, meanwhile trust your lawyers and the process (and that you can manipulate it to your advantage), and hope that time, muddied waters and political change will dilute any eventual punishment. If/when the NCAA DOES reinstate these players, you'll know they are well on their way to finessing the whole sorry deal.
