Indianapolis ? NCAA President Mark Emmert says he’s willing to back up his tough talk on punishing rule-breakers — even using the “death penalty” as a deterrent.

With salacious allegations swirling around Miami’s football program, and one week after Emmert joined with university presidents to discuss toughening sanctions against cheating schools, the NCAA’s leader said he believed the infractions committee should make the harshest penalty an option.

“If, and I say if, we have very unique circumstances where TV bans and death penalties are warranted, then I don’t think they are off the table, and I would be OK with putting those in place,” Emmert told the Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday.

Emmert later said the “death penalty,” which prohibits a school from competing in a sport, should only be used in rare cases. He was quick to distance his comments from the Miami case.

Convicted Ponzi scheme architect Nevin Shapiro has said he provided improper benefits to 72 Hurricanes football and basketball players from 2002-10 and that a handful of coaches in both programs were aware of the infractions.

Yahoo Sports first reported the allegations following an 11-month investigation in which it said it audited thousands of business and financial documents and spent more than 100 hours interviewing Shapiro.