OT: UNC Scandal(s)

Knowing the severity of the allegations, other schools might have begged for mercy by self-imposing a postseason ban. North Carolina has done the opposite. It’s stalled, obfuscated and contested the NCAA’s authority, which has only served to draw out an already laborious process even further.

It’s a strategy that may only hurt the school in the long-term, but in the short-term it’s proven a stroke of genius. Given a window of opportunity, the Tar Heels have pounced.

And if this run ends next Monday with Williams hoisting his third national championship trophy, you might say those $18 million in legal fees were well-spent.

“It’s very disillusioning to live through the last six years here,” Smith told me. “The university is operating like a crime family, and it shows the lengths to which they will go to protect their athletic machine.”

Sigh…woe is North Carolina. They were the ones that decided to drag this process out and now they’re trying to claim that their athletes don’t deserve to get punished.

Let’s not forget the NCAA model itself is at stake in this case. Many think if North Carolina goes unpunished or relatively unpunished the question needs to be asked: What’s the use of NCAA enforcement anyway?

This article actually takes UNC to task instead of writing about how the current players are hurt.

What makes the North Carolina scandal so egregious, so infuriating, is the lengths to which the school has gone to excuse it and avoid responsibility for it. Heck, had North Carolina accepted the NCAA’s second Notice of Allegations, a watered-down version that didn’t mention football or men’s basketball, all of this probably would have been resolved already.

You summed it up Patrick.
Anyone that does not care should think at the following fact. These same players would not be here this morning as National Champion if the School had been put on probation. That is reality.
Now Roy Williams has been there for how long?
Roy Williams had to know what was going on don’t you think?
What about having a law that stipulates that if the Coach is associated with these situations he should also be persona non-grata or suspended for any employment with an ncaa related School?
It comes back to the same point. The ncaa is a farce and now we have an unlawful National Champion.
Great job ncaa.

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UNC-CHeat has delayed this process until they could get Roy Williams a banner that wouldn’t be taken down by the NCAA. As arrogant as they are, this likely means they will double down on fighting the NCAA. If they get a one year post season ban for every 3 years they cheated and played otherwise ineligible players, that would be a SIX YEAR ban. My school got a three year post season ban, was banned from recruiting off campus and imposed extremely strict academic standards for the horrible crimes of players selling shoes and complimentary tickets, combined with players not making progress towards a specific degree. The same Board of Governors runs both universities and they have remained silent on this scandal other than to ask how it is affecting recruiting. As a reminder, UNC-CHeat was put on probation by their accrediting agency for academic fraud. No other major university in the country has ever suffered that fate, but after $18 million in PR and legal fees they will hangs a banner. How can anybody deem that athletic department legitimate?

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Have you all noticed the double standards that espn uses when it comes to ncaa violation(s)?
espn did a 30 for 30 special on the SMU probation.
Is espn PREPARING a special on the UNC alleged violations?

They might do one on how hard it was to win the championship with it hanging over their heads and how unfair the NCAA is for putting them under that kind of pressure.

One of the keys to the UNC-CHeat PR strategy has been having an Alum as the President of ESPN. They have been able to count on minimal and often slanted coverage over the last five years on the Disney Sports Channel. Erskine Bowles fingerprints are all over the approach they’ve taken. Delay, don’t cooperate, delaysome more, then complain about how long it is taking and say this is old news.

“For the things that happened in North Carolina, it’s abysmal. I would think that this would lead to the implementation of the death penalty by the NCAA. But I’m not in charge of that.”

What is substantial here is that Maryland is a BIG10 member. Usually P5 members take care of their own or do not make such strong comments. Is this a one off or more comments are coming? Thank you for posting.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/unc-scandal/article144125689.html

In two letters that were sent recently to NCAA enforcement officials and provided to The News & Observer on Tuesday evening, attorney Elliot Abrams contends the NCAA’s enforcement staff rushed its third and latest notice of allegations after being “pressured” by the infractions committee to come up with a tougher version.

Abrams also contends the chairman of the infractions committee, Greg Sankey, has a conflict of interest and should recuse himself from hearing the case. Sankey is commissioner of the SEC, a rival “Power 5” conference of the ACC.

And then, in other UNC news (that also includes NC State). This is probably nothing as I doubt it passes, but it’s, well…

https://twitter.com/AlexRoseNews/status/852158404269355008

I believe UNC has already been sanctioned for this, but here’s what happened to the agent:

http://collegefootball.ap.org/article/ex-agent-pleads-guilty-multi-year-unc-sports-agent-probe

Watson pleaded guilty to the 13 counts of athlete-agent inducement for providing roughly $24,000 in cash and travel accommodations to eventual NFL players Robert Quinn, Marvin Austin and Greg Little. A felony obstruction of justice charge for not providing records sought by authorities was dismissed as part of the deal.

In an email to the AP, UNC spokeswoman Joanne Peters said the school will make its case to the panel according to the NCAA’s schedule.

Sankey’s letter also details a new timetable of completion for the oft-delayed case. UNC must respond to the latest charges by May 16. The NCAA enforcement staff then has until July 17 for its own response. Sankey wrote that his panel will hear the case in August with “anticipated” dates of Aug. 16 and 17.

Rulings typically come weeks to months later, meaning the case could reach a long-awaited resolution by the end of 2017 — assuming there are no more of the delays and snags that have plagued the case so far.

UNC-CHeat Billed for Player’s Lawyers
Hopefully this link works. It seems that at the very beginning of the scandal several FB players refused to speak to the SBI about the agent stuff. Seems they were advised not to talk to avoid eligibility issues by lawyers paid for by the university.

UNC-CHeat has promised to respond to the third NOA on schedule but says the release of their response to the public may be delayed.

Really? They’ve had 7 years to come clean. The sanitized version of their response should have been ready in January.

https://twitter.com/_andrewcarter/status/867789948572680192

“The fundamental issue in our case is that the NCAA bylaws cover athletics matters, not how academics are managed,” athletic director Bubba Cunningham said on a conference call following the release of UNC’s response. “Our reply to each allegation is based on the NCAA’s constitution and member-adopted bylaws. We expect the committee on infractions to consistently apply these bylaws as the case moves forward.”

So who pays for the UNC lawyer’s fees? What a bunch of bs.
Again and again all Universities that have been suspended by the ncaa should start a class action lawsuit against the same ncaa if they do not sanction UNC.
Someone wants to drain the DC swamp? Another swamp needs to be drained too. ncaa/dc? They mirror each other.

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