We will have more about this later…but wanted to post the link so everyone could comment on the article. since this is a potential NCAA compliance issue.
Just another example of what absentee management will do for you when you have someone unwilling to LEAD and unable to manage ALL of the moving pieces of a $40 million business.
Why didn’t NC State have specific data on the College Inn to know exactly what percentage of student athletes were living at the dorm?
How can our athletics department be so well staffed yet have such limited access to tangible numbers and information?
“Why didn’t they have the data?” Most likely they are pretty sure that the percentage is far lower than 50% so they don’t worry about it. Assuming there are x number of athletes and y number of rooms = the safe zone under the NCAA definition.
On the other hand, good managers of the athletic program would compile and document those figures to prevent error and violation of the NCAA rules.
This is another example of the lax management that exists in the program. It just hasn’t come back yet to bite us.
don’t go along for the ride boys and girls.
I’m sure the NCAA has already left a message requesting this information.
My guess is that if the university didn’t know the exact percentage of athletes living there then they know it now.
The question whether the WPC deserves a tax advantage here is certainly up for debate. Not illegal mind you, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see this law changed at some point.
How do we not know this percentage?
It would appear to me that this is just another poor effort by a member of the media attempting to make a name for himself on the national stage. The article definitely had a negative bent, but it does not appear that the author had much evidence to back his premise that NC State and the Wolfpack Club are breaking any rules. I can understand the University’s reluctance to release name and address information in an effort to protect the privacy of its student athletes. They are after all students first, but much of the public sees them as athletes only and does not understand, or care about, what a distraction the spot light of public attention can be.
The place is awesome. Lot better than Tucker dorm where I stayed as a freshman with no AC. Kids today are spoiled. No secret the place is used as a recruiting tool, pretty common practice amoung big time programs, and I am sure the AD dept. sees to it that high profile B-Ball and F-ball signees are assigned there. Don’t see it as a very big deal but hard to believe the A. D. dept. doesn’t have a number.
Saw where the N&O finally validated what State, Wake, and Duke fans been saying for years. Chapel Hill stinks. Only a bunch of card carrying liberal tree huggers would plant Bradford pear trees all over campus/town without knowing they stink every spring. What a bunch of idiots.
Another example of the fine management of our Athletic Dept by the award winning AD, Jed Foulup!
+1 for http://FireLeeFowler.com
Frankly, I was stunned at the PEARL HARBOR ATTACKS headline font, story postitioning (dominating the front page on Red/White Saturday) and the total lack of actual news in the article. According to the story, these student apartments (1) do not violate the NCAA’s athletes-only dorm policy, (2) are in compliance with state law, and (3) do not represent any sort of shady or illegal action on the part of the WP Club. In short, the story is about nothing, not a damn thing. They could only find one dissenting voice, an little known state legislator who only commented in general terms about the advisability of the tax-exempt status of the facility. But, according to the article, state law provides for such status - and the WP Club would use any future revenue from the facility for scholarship programs.
Should the AD/athletics dept been able to answer some of these questions? Perhaps so. But according to the story, the associate AD for compliance clearly stated in interviews that, “… at most 30 percent… are athletes… If we thought we were close to 50 percent we would be sure to have an exact number…”
So the athletics department is tracking this and it is not a concern, ergo: NO VIOLATION. NO STORY. PERIOD.
WTF! A classic, bs, anti-NC State, inaccurate News and Observer attack specifically calculated to to take away the focus on what should be a day of good news for the school’s sports program.
No wonder people thing State fans are paranoid. It is not paranoia if someone is out to get you.
If this place is such an overwhelmingly recruiting magnet, along with our top notch facilities, where in the hell is the payoff?
Yeah! What “gopack968″ said…
Chalk another one up for our SID for helping the N&O make something out of nothing. A simple “31.3457%” answer would have kept the words “loosely managed” out of the story and killed the story period.
Do we have the same PR people as our current president?
For midnight madness this year, the N&O will be printing excerpts from Personal Fouls.
I never visit the N&O website, except on occasion when pointed there by this website and others like it. There is no sports news in the N&O that I haven’t read three times already on sites like this one.
There is no news in this article except that Lorenzo Perez is a hack.
However, the athletics department better have their act together in this environment and they don’t seem to in many areas.
No accident this came out the day of the Red/White game. The N&O could not allow us to have a positive spring game after UNC’s was a joke. Am I alone to think it is wrong of the N&O to insinuate that this could be a NCAA violation and illegal, but provide no evidence. As it is now, people reading the paper are going to think we are cheating regardless of the follow up story says when it is buried on page 9 in a month.
I wonder how UNC can recruit top players when they have to live in dorms with 50% regular students, must be so hard for them……
Reading the article I assumed it was accusing State of housing more than 50% athletes in The College Inn or one building or whatever the other stipulations were, but even in the final sentence they conclude that only 41% are athletes. The athletic department said at most 30%. What’s the point? That the people at the N&O can count higher? I don’t see a conspiracy. I don’t see complete incompetence on the part of the athletic department in this instance. I see nothing. A waste of space. It almost seems like the story was written expecting to find something, but by the time they drew the conclusion they realized there was nothing, but ran the story anyway. BTW, I guess I am not a “real jock”.
I have no problem with the administrator not knowing the number.. and who knows the 30% number may be closer to the total number as the stated 41% from Perez was just one fllor and we know it had to be the highest percentage floor he could find or he would have printed a higher one.
The fact is we are well below the threshold and our AD folks know we are well below the number. SO the fact that they do not know the number is okay by me. I can see the administarot now.. what our percentage.. 30% or so… wow that is 40% below thr linit. ‘I think one floor may have 41%.. hmmmmmm that’s almost 20% under.. Number will not change again until the fall… I’m not to worried. I will fill my head with other stuff.
I have issues with the AD department, but this is a non story on them. This is really about a paper with an agenda…. it will be interesting to see how fans of the other schools react to this.
If I read this about Wake, I would say.. “wonder why this is in the paper?” .. with the pearl harbour treatment to boot.
My paper must have left out the part where Perez said there was a violation taking place. Can someone point that part out to me?
Also, what was factually untrue in the article?
“But Fagg said athletic department officials have asked the management firm that runs the complex to make sure athletes are not blocked into any one floor, wing or particular area.”
The article is definitely lame, but it seems so typical when I hear words like “diligent” being used, then find out that no one at NCSU has a firm number because important compliance issues are actually being handled by an outside managing firm.
Again, they aren’t working hard enough to improve the athletics, so exactly what do they do with all of their time up there?
Wha…the f…! Off day for the N$O ? Worst freaking paper in our hemisphere.
Sad day when the Raleigh Times got bought out while I lived In Cali. What a joke to return here and have this fish wrap as my only local print.
Where Perez seems to me to infer that due to multiple occupancy, 8 b-ball players in two apartments on a “wing/hall” with 8 apartments, is a violation if there are only 1 occupant in the six other apartments. It’s why he mentioned no data on the amount of other occupants was provided. Idoubt seriously that was the case, remeber college? No one I knew lived alone.
Just a strafe by the N&O, they see the writing on the wall come autumn and will do anything to try and prevent it.
First off - this article is an absolute waste of space. This is the equivalent of saying, “Several UNC basketball players were seen driving around campus in cars. We are not sure if the baketball players paid for them or if they were paid by well-heeled boosters.” This is a blatant example of the media bias that the N&O has towards NC State.
This story can only make NC State look bad and crooked. That and alerting the NCAA to this is the sole purpose of this article.
Secondly, our athletic department needs to get it’s crap together. Hopefully, by the end of next week there will be retort from the department advising that we are in compliance and that we are considering legal action against the N&O. We will no longer by advertising from there and we will no longer sell the paper on campus until the paper offers an apology for what is implied in this article.
One thing that will get us in trouble is Fagg’s contention that “we’re nowhere close to 50%” if we are.
How does an article that’s factually accurate and that actually points out that we ARE in compliance make us look bad and crooked?
I wouldn’t wipe my dog’s a*& with the N.O.If you were around in the late 80’s early 90’s you know what I mean.Total blasting of V and anything N.C.STATE.The problem is the total over kill to keep our nose clean since then, while other universities players smoke MJ, get arrested,bunch of players that shouldn’t be in college(700 sat)is hardly ever mentioned,if so on page 9.
Sorry I forgot NC STATE IS THE ONLY UNIVERSITY THAT DOES ANYTHING WRONG-EVER! (If not-implyed wrong doing.)
DOH-gets run out of town-that OK-it’s UNX-they know what their doing.
Mr.NeverAChampionship leaves-its all our fault,lunatics-your horrible.
Give TOB a year or two when he starts winning big-The N.O.will drag up something to tarnish it.
SCREW THE N.O.-BIRD CAGE MULCH.
>Noah
Apr 19th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
How does an article that’s factually accurate and that actually points out that we ARE in compliance make us look bad and crooked?
The point, Noah, is the article should have never been written (or published). It may be factually correct, but the tone is completely negative and written as IF there is something fishing going on. Power of the pen. The N&O has demonstrated they will screw us. They’re just keeping in practice.
Well, that’s sort of how I feel about every article about golf, nascar and soccer.
But how does an article that points out that we ARE COMPLYING with the rules imply that we are breaking the rules?
What tone?
What are the offending paragraphs?
It also is subject to strict NCAA regulations — rules that, based on records and other interviews, N.C. State could run the risk of violating because it has monitored the College Inn arrangement loosely.
The third floor of the College Inn’s two-winged complex features several hallways with clusters of N.C. State athletes. Records obtained by The N&O show that N.C. State student-athletes live in at least 13 of the College Inn’s 32 third-floor apartments, or 41 percent.
I think those are the two worst paragraphs as far as planting the seed of doubt in people’s minds. Just because something is factually accurate doesn’t mean it doesn’t leave an impression. How about if they ran this: “Sidney Lowe has never been caught beating his wife.” Factually accurate, but it certainly plants a seed, doesn’t it?
You have to question the news judgment of the editor who decided this article A) warranted prominent placement in the paper, and B) warranted being written at all. If they really wanted to write a story on the College Inn and had no agenda they could have written about how nice it was, talked to a non-athlete who lived there and just got their input on what life was like living there. That’s not what they chose to do.
Noah
Since you seem to be pressing the issue, can you point out for me where specifically the article states that the College Inn is in compliance with NCAA regulations? What sentence and paragraph? My paper must have left that part out. The 41% referenced could lead someone to infer that they are in compliance. However, the very next paragraph references a hallway on which half of the apartments are occupied by athletes and further states that occupants of the other apartments on that hallway could not be determined. As Rochester correctly points out, there are several portions of the article that could lead one to infer that they may not be in compliance. His Sidney Lowe example is spot on.
I also have to agree that the timing of the article is just a little too coincidental if you know what I mean.
So, they picked a random rule and decided to write an article congratulating NC State for being in compliance with that rule? Again, it seems like they thought they were going to find something, but didn’t and ran the story anyway. No conspiracy, just a non-issue.
Noah - nowhere does the article say that we are in compliance. Not one sentence says, “All/Most evidence indicates that NC State is in compliance w/ the NCAA regulation.”
The closest it takes to making a stand is the sentence Rochester points out:
rules that, based on records and other interviews, N.C. State could run the risk of violating because it has monitored the College Inn arrangement loosely.
I’d like know where anyone writing this article says that we are in compliance. They mention the #s - but it’s obvious they did a lot of digging. In addition, they don’t mention any of the other 2 schools in the ACC right next door.
Factual accuracy is a very low bar. It’s like saying, “well, he didn’t lie on his application.” It’s the most basic element not of fairness, but of any story. The “it’s true” arguments is the excuse I’d use if I made a presentation that was horribly biased toward one recommendation. Truth and bias aren’t mutually exclusive.
The appearance of these buildings reminds me of military barrcks.Another reason why NCSU is ranked #9 on the list of the 10 most ugly campuses and that include centenial.TOP TEN CAMPUS!
maybe they had the numbers, but didnt feel they needed to disclose them to a newsource blatantly trying to sabotage the school. maybe they were trying to tell the n&o to fuck off, thats our business and the NCAA’s not yours
on second thought that would be too ballzy for the ones in charge at this university
The reply I received from Ted Vaden, the N&O public editor, to my query on the article:
I’m attaching a response from Andy Curliss, the editor for that project:
“The piece on the College Inn was an interesting and detailed look at an aspect of the athletics program that I venture to guess many people knew little about. As we noted in the piece, NCSU says it is within the rules. NCSU also acknowledged loose monitoring of the facility — and as was made clear in the story, the university did not allow several key people involved to speak with us about the facility.
“Within the rules or not, it is still worth reporting about things that are of interest to readers. The Wolfpack Club is one of only two booster groups that are also landlords in the ACC.
“I bet plenty of readers — State fans or not — find that worth reading about. As you start to write about that novel situation, an obvious question is whether NCAA rules apply and what are they and how is NCSU following them. We looked into it, and reported what we found out.”
Ted Vaden
And my reply:
I have to say that it sounds more like the N&O tried to find dirt, failed, and then wrote the story anyway. The hint of impropriety was all over the article. Unwritten, but clearly inferred.
And none of this answer addresses the size and position of the headline (can a story about student housing possibly merit that size type?) or the placement of the article above the fold, sports page 1, on the day of the Red/White game. I also found the complete absence of any quotes from students who live in the facility - athletes or otherwise - rather strange.
But all complaints aside, Mr. Vaden I appreciate the time you took to look into this and pass the answer on to me.
Thank you.
please accept the theory of NCSU fulfilling
the role of “low hanging fruit” for the N&O.