North Carolina Tar Heels (official thread)

[knapplc]

NCAA Throws the Book at North Carolina

This explains how Butch Davis has managed to produce all those world-beating teams at UNC over the past four years:

Academic Fraud
Extra Benefits
Agents
Nine total major violations

But.... according to the two articles I've read on this so far, it appears the Tarheels will escape major damage from all of this.

Why?

Because apparently there's no trail, paper or electronic, leading to Butch Davis. John Blake, Defensive Line Coach, seems to be the focal point of all the trouble.

Maybe the NCAA is in a bind here. Without actual factual evidence showing that Davis is involved, they (apparently) feel that they can't levy LOIC against the Tarheels - but they should. Davis should know what his assistants are doing. No matter how much UNC has, apparently, painted Blake as a rogue assistant doing things all on his own, it's the job of the head coach to know what his assistants are doing.

The hammer will fall against UNC. It likely will not be a sledge hammer - more like a roofing hammer, or a small mallet. But it should be a ten-pound sledge with a reinforced handle. The allegations warrant it. The institution should have known what was going on.

Way to further muck up the situation, NCAA. I am not impressed.

Despite breathtaking NCAA charges, UNC's Davis may survive

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/stewart_mandel/06/21/ncaa.unc/index.html#ixzz1Q0WxEXiH
If you're an NCAA rules junkie, reading the Notice of Allegations handed down on North Carolina's football program Tuesday must be like unwrapping the latest iPhone.

It's got everything.

Academic fraud? There's an app for that. Extra benefits? More different types from more different people than you could possibly fit on one screen. Agents? Oh, so many agents -- both real and wannabes. And then there's John Blake, the assistant coach who was secretly working for a sports agent while employed by the university. He might get his own page in the next NCAA manual.

For all the tawdry scandals that have tarnished college football over the past 12 months -- from USC to Tennessee, from Cam Newton to Jim Tressel -- one can easily argue that the nine major violations levied against Butch Davis' program Tuesday contain more filth and more blatant disregard for the rule book than any of them.

And yet, one gets the sense that after nearly a year of buildup, North Carolina's case may wind up causing less indignation than any of them. Fans don't generally get worked up over perennial 8-5 programs. It would probably take the death penalty for fans outside Tobacco Road to truly take notice, and at least two notable omissions from Tuesday's report assure that's not going to happen.

Unlike disgraced Ohio State coach Tressel, currently unemployed and unhireable for failing to disclose knowledge of violations by his players, Davis' name does not appear anywhere in the NCAA's 42-page report. He remains gainfully employed for now. And unlike USC (or Boise State, for that matter), North Carolina escaped the dreaded Lack of Institutional Control charge that usually elicits the Committee on Infractions' harshest penalties, settling instead for the just-below-that Failure to Monitor.

So to all you coaches out there: If your program is found guilty of every variety of NCAA violation imaginable, just be sure no one e-mails you about it. And the lesson for schools: Check your players' Twitter accounts. Seriously. That's one of the three things UNC is cited for failing to monitor.

Otherwise, investigators apparently felt the school did the best possible job it could in monitoring its rogue defensive line coach/agent runner; its tutors who not only wrote papers' players but helped pay their parking tickets; and 10 of the 11 individuals (most of them agents, financial advisers or former players) who provided more than $27,000 in benefits to stars like Marvin Austin.

Read the report and you'll find this nearly impossible to fathom.

In defending its much-criticized enforcement system, NCAA officials constantly remind us that "every case is different," much to the frustration of the common fan whose instinctual reaction to news like this is to immediately compare and contrast. Are North Carolina's infractions more or less egregious than Ohio State's? Will the Tar Heels suffer stiffer or less severe sanctions than USC? It's an impossible thing to quantify, and Tuesday's surprising lack of lack-of-institutional-control twist makes it tougher to predict the final outcome. We can only guess that the penalties will still be stiff.

Read more

 

[OH10]

Two significant differences between UNC and OSU:

1. At this time, there aren't nearly as many alleged major infractions.

2. Unfortunately, one of Ohio State's major infractions directly involved the head coach.

So I'm not sure which situation is worse. But its par for the course for college football. I'd be careful if I were a part of any fanbase laughing right now. Chances are your time is coming at some point.

 

[knapplc]

To your #2 point - There's no direct evidence linking Davis, which is why the pundits are speculating UNC's punishment won't be as severe as Ohio State's. But that's a technicality, in that Davis definitely should have known. Character will play no role here, but between Tressel and Davis, HCJT is by far the more trustworthy guy. Davis is crooked. Again, my opinion.

And you're right that no program should be laughing. As we've discussed numerous times, it would be almost impossible for some nasty shenanigans to NOT be going on at nearly every major (and most minor) school. Big-time athletics involves big-time money, and money breeds corruption.

Specifically speaking about John Blake, immediately prior to his tenure at UNC he was the D Line coach at Nebraska, and had his hands directly involved in Callahan's recruiting efforts. There's nervousness here in Lincoln, but I think we're likely in the clear.

 

[billmac91]

Tressel flat out lied, I get that....he was wrong and deserved punishment.

But the NCAA has concluded that John Blake was not only a coach, but an NFL Agent. He's deemed an agent because he was paid $31,000 by Gary Wachard (Licensed NFL Agent) and Blake listed Wachard as an employer on his taxes.

So UNC can have what the NCAA deems an NFL Agent on their sidelines as an employed assistant coach, and Ohio State could still get harsher penalties because Tressel lied about awards for tattoos??

Unless another shoe is to drop on tOSU, I just can't fathom that.

And I haven't even mentioned the UNC tutor who admittedly wrote papers for the athletes and PAID thousands in parking tickets for football players.

 

[BB73]

For tracking purposes, UNC has 90 days to respond to the NOA, and if there are no delays, is scheduled to appear before the Infractions Committee on Oct. 28th.

 

[OhioState001]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6702315

Sounds like these guys have quite the car collection themselves

Little, who was declared "permanently ineligible" by the NCAA in October, received 43 tickets on a gray Nissan car and 38 on a gray Dodge. He also was listed as being responsible for a green BMW (seven tickets), a black Acura (four) and a black Honda (one).

Houston's black Land Rover was ticketed 63 times. Quinn received a total of 53 tickets on a blue Dodge and a red Ford. Brown's purple Chevrolet received 38 citations, while vehicles linked to Williams, White and Burney each were cited a total 20 times. There were 10 tickets listed for Carter's red Dodge.

 

[BB73]

Michael McAdoo has files a lawsuit against the NCAA to get himself reinstated, since he ruled permanently ineligible after his part in the agents and academic problems that North Carolina had over the last year.

SI.com

McAdoo to put NCAA to test as he seeks injuction to end ineligibility

The NCAA's judicial system tried North Carolina defensive end Michael McAdoo last year and found him guilty of crimes serious enough to warrant a permanent ban from college sports. McAdoo believes the NCAA tried and sentenced him without gathering all the facts, so he is taking college sports' governing body -- as well as his own school -- to a real court in an attempt to salvage his senior season.

No matter the result of McAdoo's request for a preliminary injunction that would allow him to play or the outcome of his lawsuit, the case should provide a fascinating look at what happens when the NCAA's judicial process goes on trial. McAdoo's lawsuit, filed Friday in Durham County in North Carolina, claims McAdoo was "improperly and unjustly declared ineligible to play intercollegiate athletics by Defendant NCAA." McAdoo, who was suspended for all of the 2010 season, is seeking unspecified damages. Most important, attorney Noah Huffstetler said, is the request for a preliminary injunction that would put McAdoo back on the field by the time the Tar Heels begin practice in August. That request is scheduled to go before a judge on July 15. McAdoo's case must pass two tests in order to receive the injunction, Huffstetler said. First, Judge Orlando Hudson Jr. must believe the case can win at trial. Second, Huffstetler must prove McAdoo would suffer irreparable harm if Hudson doesn't grant the injunction.

"How do you put a price on this?" Huffstetler said Tuesday. "It's something a young man dreams of."

McAdoo found himself ensnared on both ends of the two-front investigation that will send North Carolina's football program before the NCAA's firing squad later this year. The investigation found McAdoo guilty of accepting $110 in improper benefits -- $99 from an agent -- and found him guilty of three instances of academic fraud resulting from portions of papers actually composed by tutor Jennifer Wiley. For those crimes, McAdoo was ruled permanently ineligible by NCAA staffers in November, and the NCAA's Student Athlete Reinstatement Committee upheld the sentence in January following a December appeal hearing.

​

Cont'd ...
​

 

[knapplc]

Watching the Watchers

I doubt McAdoo has much of a chance in getting reinstated, but I applaud the idea of shining a spotlight on the NCAA and their investigative processes. Their wildly inconsistent methods put my favorite sport on uncertain ground, and I don't like that. We need someone to watch the watchers.

 

[BuckTwenty]

OSU notice of allegations? 13 pages.

North Carolina notice of allegations? 42 pages.



Found that interesting. Sounds like they have an extensive amount of evidence on those guys, but we're only hearing a portion of it. The media would rather pound us into the ground and let them go free.

 

[knapplc]

OSU notice of allegations? 13 pages.

North Carolina notice of allegations? 42 pages.



Found that interesting. Sounds like they have an extensive amount of evidence on those guys, but we're only hearing a portion of it. The media would rather pound us into the ground and let them go free.

That is the two-edged sword of popularity. You guys are a flagship program. When you sneeze, all of college football catches a cold.

North Carolina? Not so much.

 

[OhioState2110]

OSU notice of allegations? 13 pages.

North Carolina notice of allegations? 42 pages.



Found that interesting. Sounds like they have an extensive amount of evidence on those guys, but we're only hearing a portion of it. The media would rather pound us into the ground and let them go free.

How long as USC's notice of allegations?

 

[alexhortdog95]

To your #2 point - There's no direct evidence linking Davis, which is why the pundits are speculating UNC's punishment won't be as severe as Ohio State's. But that's a technicality, in that Davis definitely should have known. Character will play no role here, but between Tressel and Davis, HCJT is by far the more trustworthy guy. Davis is crooked. Again, my opinion.

And you're right that no program should be laughing. As we've discussed numerous times, it would be almost impossible for some nasty shenanigans to NOT be going on at nearly every major (and most minor) school. Big-time athletics involves big-time money, and money breeds corruption.

Specifically speaking about John Blake, immediately prior to his tenure at UNC he was the D Line coach at Nebraska, and had his hands directly involved in Callahan's recruiting efforts. There's nervousness here in Lincoln, but I think we're likely in the clear.

I will personally (and you can quote me on this one) kick the crap outta Bill in New York if the NCAA comes a sniffin here because of the crap Blake may or may not have done. Specially because we never really benefitted from it. Our teams under that coaching staff sucked....

As far as the folks complaining about tOSU getting the short end of the stick and UNC and Oregon not.....couple things you guys did that work against you using that excuse:

1 - You are repeat violators of NCAA Bylaws as admitted to in the answer to the NCAA's notice of allegations. Those other two schools are not, as far as I know.

2 - You guys dared...DARED I say, to buck that which is all powerful in sports media (ESPN) and created your own TV network.

Finally....Shep Cooper is one busy mofo. I've seen his name on more paper than the first president of the United States, LOL

 

[SCBuck13]

Don't have a link, but it's all over twitter. It appears as if Butch Davis is done at UNC.

 

[scooter1369]

MOre smoke on this coming out. Apparently the team has been told Davis is out according to Andy Staples

 

[Magua]

Hearing the same stuff.

http://northcarolina.scout.com/2/1089825.html