NCAA is on the hot seat because of recent mess ups with Mohammed and Miami. Just a reporter cashing in on public interest by piling in on the NCAA. There is no attempt to explain the real injustice in the process. These are the events imo:
Nochimson was culprit #1 in this process by making the surgical payments and trying to become Miles agent. JC was distancing himself from Nochimson before or at the time these events were taking place. For those with good memories, recall prior to the Miles fiasco, Rip was cheated by Nochimson. There was no way on earth JC would deal with someone who cheated one of his players.
JC went to the AD's compliance department to report problems. Unfortunately Hathaway reduced the compliance department personnel. In essence Hathaway controlled the compliance department. Hathaway was culprit #2 in this fiasco. He hated JC and not only did he block attempts to get a legal team to begin contacting the NCAA about Nochimson, he put the nail in the coffin when he made the statement at the NCAA hearing "he never saw JC attempt to recruit a player harder". This statement not only was an outright lie, but even if that couldn't be proven, an impartial NCAA would have questioned Hathaway about his knowledge of recruitment.
It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to realize that an AD has no way of knowing the process coaches are involved with in recruiting players to determine if Miles was indeed recruited the hardest of any of JC's recrutits. Unfortunately for JC, two things went against him. First he appeared frequently at Hathaways office regarding Miles. The fact that it was to get help to deal with compliance was not documented. All the secretary heard was JC was there to see JH about Miles. Therefore it appeared to validate Hathaway. Second, the texts which were sent to get Nochimson to stay away from Miles, appeared to be doing just the opposite. The NCAA only reports contact with Nochimson, not what the texts state. It was the evidence culprit #3, Emmert, needed to put the bb program under penalties. Emmert also had a vendetta against JC.
The problem is that culprit #4 will never seek the truth. The press didn't really care for JC. And even if they did, culprit #5, the general college bb fan did not like JC and therefore would never accept the events I list. So no serious sports writer will go out of his way to clear things.
And that leaves culprit #6 JC, to shoulder the blame. Sooner or later if you p*ss off enough people it will come back to haunt you. The beauty of JC is he is a maverick. But, it was also his weakness.