As confusing, as surprising, as embarrassing, as unbearably long as this NCAA investigation of the University of Miami seems from the outside, an official on the inside adds another word.
"Unprecedented,'' an NCAA investigator who worked on the Miami case said.
This is a walk through the looking glass. This is a view of the other side, at how the sausage in NCAA investigations gets made — or un-made, as in this strange Miami case.
NCAA President Mark Emmert called a national news conference last week, saying he was "angry," that an investigator sat with the lawyer for UM whistle-blower Nevin Shapiro on the depositions of former athletic employees.
This NCAA investigator, who demanded anonymity, raised a different angle to that issue. It broke no law, he said. It didn't involve a twisted ethical question, he said.
"There are a lot of us wondering just what the purpose of (Emmert's news conference) was — and why it happened in the first place,'' the investigator said.
Do you know how unusual this is? An investigator questioning the NCAA itself? A foot soldier wondering what is at work inside the college castle?
When asked if there was an ethical question in an attorney using legal means to depose someone the NCAA otherwise couldn't, the investigator was certain.
"This was good, investigative work,'' he said.
The investigator then listed similar officials the NCAA has worked with through the years to gather evidence against schools or individuals: U.S. Attorney offices, private investigators, former FBI agents and various lawyers.
"Even in the Miami case, this wasn't a solitary issue,'' he said.
He said investigator Mark Zonder sat in on the deposition of Miami lawyer Mark Levinson, who represented Shapiro's sports agency.
"I don't know how he can't,'' the investigator said when asked if Emmert knew of a second investigator involved like this. "A lot of us are asking, 'Why was such a big deal made of this one situation.' And no one can answer the question. It's all strange to us. We're confused."
If they're confused on the inside, imagine all of us trying to translate it all on the outside. There's no explaining how this NCAA process works when those directly involved — Miami officials, the NCAA president and NCAA investigators — are at such obvious odds with one another.
Another tidbit: Emmert knew for months before his news conference about the supposedly questionable tactics of investigator Ameen Najjar. After all, Najjar was fired last summer. He was in Miami attorney Maria Elena Perez's office when former UM trainer Sean Allen arrived to be deposed.
Perez admitted no wrongdoing and to receiving a small amount of money from the NCAA.
"It was nothing for billable hours,'' the investigator said. "It was more like for the cost of a copy of the deposition, which was a public record."
The larger question: Can other investigations be called into question in the same manner this one was by the NCAA president?
"I'm not going to get involved in that,'' the investigator said.
The question of NCAA investigators bullying potential interviewees and overstepping legal bounds has been on the table for a while. One other tactic in the Miami investigation was a former player being threatened with denial of all use of university facilities if they didn't cooperate with investigators.
"We don't have subpoena power,'' the investigator said.
From Emmert's stated timetable, the NCAA should be completing its outside investigation into the NCAA investigators any day now. During his news conference last week, he said it would be completed in "seven to 10 days."
This investigator said everything for the Notice of Allegations is drawn up and "several coaches' conduct" will be called into question.
Here's what else gets called into question: This entire process. Miami officials aren't happy this investigation has taken so long. The NCAA president isn't happy with the way it was carried out.
Now the foot soldiers of the NCAA, the investigators, wonder about the tactics of their boss. No one knows where exactly this is going to end.
The only certainty?
This mess keeps getting messier.
