“Spirit, not the letter of the law”

Here’s what the UNC System President had to say regarding accusations made against one of North Carolina’s flagship universities:

Athletics and academics are in tension by the nature of their time demands, but athletics and academics cannot be allowed to be in conflict in a great university. The evidence is clear that the academic processes and standards…have been misused in a number of instances to benefit some individual…players.

Problem is, these comments weren’t directed at a lack of academic and institutional oversight by the University of North Carolina or its coaching staffs. No, these were the comments made by former UNC System President C.D. Spangler regarding the investigation into academic impropriety within Jim Valvano’s basketball program, as reported by Duke grad and longtime area ACC sportswriter Barry Jacobs on August 26, 1989. More precisely, the quote is as follows:

Athletics and academics are in tension by the nature of their time demands, but athletics and academics cannot be allowed to be in conflict in a great university. The evidence is clear that the academic processes and standards of North Carolina State University have been misused in a number of instances to benefit some individual basketball players.

Spangler further added that the investigation revealed only that the “spirit, not the letter of the law” was broken regarding the accusations. Yet, he requested that Jim Valvano resign as State’s Athletic Director anyway. (We discuss more of Valvano and NC State’s ultimate exoneration in this editorial that cannot be missed and needs to be forwarded and sent all over the State of North Carolina):

Spangler’s report faulted Valvano for failure to provide adequate oversight of players’ academic progress and for encouraging course loads designed to maintain athletic eligibility rather than to form ”a coherent program of study.” Valvano was further criticized for recruiting players who had no reasonable expectation of graduation.

While the NCAA investigated NC State in 1989, the Poole Commission was formed and the Attorney General got the SBI involved to investigate potential financial infractions. Only minor infractions were found, namely the sale of shoes and game tickets by State basketball players, of which the coaching staff was found to have no knowledge. Yet, Jimmy V was vilified as evil incarnate for harboring an environment lacking oversight and control while the local media, the UNC Board of Governors, C.D. Spangler — and, unfortunately, many within the NC State community — spewed vitriol freely upon his name for it.

For the record, there were no implications of players cheating or improper assistance by any tutors at Jim Valvano’s NC State. There was no institutionalized cheating or academic fraud within the University. There was no grade-fixing. Players who did not deserve to matriculate or graduate were, in fact, not graduating and therefore not destroying the value of the diploma that so many hang so proudly. Nor were there accusations that agents were paying for players’ trips to Miami or California or funneling money through coaches to players.

And, most importantly, it seems that few folks recognize that every sanction leveled upon the State Basketball program was self-imposed by the University, and that the NCAA found this internal punishment satisfactory.

As I wrote on this blog in December 2008:

[T]he NCAA had been satisfied with the university’s internal corrective and punitive actions for the minor violations the Poole Commission had uncovered, which had included tighter restrictions over ticket and shoe distributions to players, limitations of off-campus recruiting visits, Valvano’s resignation as athletic director, and most crippling, a reduction in scholarships for three years. The NCAA also leveled the maximum two-year probation and barred State from participating in the 1990 NCAA Tournament…

One of the many questions that remains unanswered isn’t about the accusations, but rather the “review” itself. In 1989, the investigation was multi-faceted, including seperate inquiries by the NCAA, The Poole Commission, and also the Attorney General’s office into the University. So why is there no protocol for doing the same when accusations have been leveled against Carolina when, clearly, the precedent for this type of investigation exists?

State’s comparatively minor infractions and self-imposed sanctions left the program crippled, staggering along the ACC floor for a decade as it tried to recover.

Just imagine how bad it would’ve been if we’d done things “The Carolina Way.”

About LRM

Charter member of the Lunatic Fringe and a fan, loyal to a fault.

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56 Responses to “Spirit, not the letter of the law”

  1. highstick 09/08/2010 at 3:49 PM #

    If Spangler was the Genie in the Bottle, I’d vacuum seal the bottle and suck all of the air out so he’d choke!

    BTW, guys, NCSU had that same rule about replacing F’s at one point. It had a cap of 15 hours though. But they did away with it somewhere in the 1966-1969 range, I think.. It saved my butt until I could get the heck out of Aerospace!

  2. Go Army 89 09/08/2010 at 3:55 PM #

    Excellent post! I still contend that selling shoes given to you in America is not a problem, and even if you want to take the leap that athletes should not be benefiting from these transactions it is still not nearly as bad as the widespread cheating and receipt of improper benefits that is going on at UNX. Step up Erskine. Clean this up before you retire.

  3. packalum08 09/08/2010 at 4:04 PM #

    ^^When I was at State (Fall ’04 – Spring ’08) they had a policy called Freshman retake. Basically, you could retake a course you bombed (F or D, I believe) your freshman year and the bad grade would be removed. Once you were a sophomore, the policy no longer applied.

    BTW, is it just me, or does Dickie B sound like he’s way in over his head on the radio w/ Gold and Ovies?

  4. peteavio 09/08/2010 at 4:08 PM #

    Well, don’t forget that Valvano was also busy running a moving company in NYC. He moved stuff for V and V moving, along with his partner Dick Vitale. I remember it featured on The Cosby Show.

    How can he do all that…..and supervise the department.

  5. PoppaJohn 09/08/2010 at 4:09 PM #

    Okay, I’m calling it. This is the best year to be a Wolfpacker in a very, very long time.

  6. highstick 09/08/2010 at 4:20 PM #

    If ghosts get to hang around cemeteries after death, V, Jessie Helms, and I are gonna have a good time “bashing UNC” in Historic Oakwood Cemetery!!

  7. packof81 09/08/2010 at 4:21 PM #

    Go Army 89 said, “Step up Erskine. Clean this up before you retire.”

    Irksome Bowels has been layin’ low as of late.

  8. wufpup76 09/08/2010 at 4:24 PM #

    “Okay, I’m calling it. This is the best year to be a Wolfpacker in a very, very long time.”

    ^Argree.

    And if Erskine B. actually does anything to his beloved Holes I may die of shock.

  9. Sam92 09/08/2010 at 4:29 PM #

    ok, i’ll say out loud what i’m afraid of: that UNC will get a pass on this because the unc system, at the highest levels, and indeed state government, is stacked with UNC grads – is there anyone at either institution who will really hold them to account?

  10. ADVENTUROO 09/08/2010 at 4:32 PM #

    For those of you that don’t follow the politcal scene and read the comments….Erstkine Bowles will have a TREMENDOUS impact on this nation……but none of it will be in connection with the UNC Situation. THE UNXers go ballistic when you use the SCANDAL word.

    Erskine will, along with a set-up Republican counterpart (who the DNC has pictures of with animals related to the UNC Mascot…PROBABLY) will recommend a Value Added Tax to “reduce the deficit”. Hopefully, passage of this (which is widely used in Mexico and Europe) will be stymied as there will be gridlock in DC…after Nov 2.

    THAT is what Erskine is UP TO these daya….

  11. newt 09/08/2010 at 4:45 PM #

    “Okay, I’m calling it. This is the best year to be a Wolfpacker in a very, very long time.”

    Only if we do our part and win some games, both in football and basketball.

  12. golf76 09/08/2010 at 5:27 PM #

    “With that said, in regards to the Unx situation I want / demand the same scrutiny with the same vitriol by all associated parties. Anything less or different means some institutions and people get to play by a different set of rules.”

    In life what goes around comes around. This is an excellent opportunity for the editorial board of one of the major in-state dailies to conduct an in-depth comparison/contrast investigation into the similarities/differences between how V was handled vs. how UNX is being handled. Fair is fair — we need the same standards for all parts of the University system. The process and the standards should be the same whether 25 years ago to today.

  13. highstick 09/08/2010 at 5:34 PM #

    Sam, I said the same in another thread. All of this is just a continuation of the crappy political environment in North Carolina. It rarely gets fixed, just gets swept under the rug!

    But these guys get elected by voters(who also watch football games), so you get what you vote for!

  14. tractor57 09/08/2010 at 5:40 PM #

    The rug in this issue is getting mighty lumpy.

  15. old13 09/08/2010 at 5:58 PM #

    If the UNC System is to now have any credibility as anything but another UNC-CHeaters good-old-boy organization, they need to bring in a NUMBER of outside, objective members with high academic credentials to keep things on an even keel for all of the systm schools.

  16. Wolf74 09/08/2010 at 6:20 PM #

    C D Spangler (and his whipping boy Monthief) were nothing but pure scum of the earth. Maybe my memory wrong but didn’t old CD get arrested for price fixing and serve some time later on?

    Just another crummy tarhole doing it “the Carolina Way”.

  17. cWOhLFrPAiCKs 09/08/2010 at 7:32 PM #

    packAlum08 says: BTW, is it just me, or does Dickie B sound like he’s way in over his head on the radio w/ Gold and Ovies?

    (My favorite part)
    Partial Transcript:

    AG: “Alright, quickly, back to John Blake, this, this just jumped back to me. If it was his decision to resign, why is the university paying the remainder of his base salary?”

    DB: “Yeah…..J,J…John…mentioned to me at the end of the week that…um…he wanted to consider resignation if it was in the best interest of the football program…uh…that that he could be a distraction to the program and he didn’t want that to happen. Um…so everybody thinks that, about that over the weekend and the university, the athletic department…comes to a conclusion that that’s in the best interest of the football program, is in the best interest of the University of North Carolina. John obviously has a concern in doing that…uh…in some sort of transition period. If it, if by us offering him some resources, that helped him make that decision…uh…and get us to the position where it was best for the University of North Carolina, then we felt like that’s something we should do. That’s the reason.”

    He answered almost every question with “…Yeah…” and then took 15 seconds to construct his answer before speaking. I can’t imagine having an incompetent individual like this representing my athletic department…oh, wait…damn…

  18. El Scrotcho 09/08/2010 at 7:44 PM #

    I understand that we inevitably view the current UNC issues through the lens of Valvano, but I wonder if we are not doing ourselves a disservice by dredging up our own past issues so readily. In constantly associating the two, it almost starts to sound like the dirty program in Raleigh reveling in the troubles of the dirty program in Chapel Hill.

    They’ve done enough on their own to provoke outrage without us so readily adopting and promoting the revenge motive.

    *shrugs* It’s just an uneasy feeling that has been stirring in my gut watching the slant on the story the last few days.

  19. wufpup76 09/08/2010 at 8:35 PM #

    ^Very good point.

  20. cWOhLFrPAiCKs 09/08/2010 at 8:57 PM #

    Well said, El Scrotcho. I must admit I find myself anticipating the next big news story more as each new one comes out. But it’s hard not to have sympathy for the innocent players. I guess I just hope that the guilty are punished; in particular, the people on the staff and in the administration that allowed these activities to go on unchecked. The players that are in trouble now are just the ones that got caught. If things are as some have rumored, this thing goes back a long way and these guys are just the dumbest group who couldn’t keep their fingers shut.

    On a different topic, who decides if an independent investigation is going to happen? The NCAA? ACC? UNC? SOS? Who composes the group that conducts the investigation? Anyone with more information on this please post. It would be greatly appreciated!

  21. WendellPackster 09/08/2010 at 9:34 PM #

    Amen. The double-standard the holier than thou holes somehow maintain is unbelievable.

  22. Uncle Everett 09/08/2010 at 9:59 PM #

    I thought it was really nice for the N&O to give UNC a heads up on the John Blake expose. Gave them a chance to get the “resignation” before the article hit the newsstand.

  23. turfpack 09/08/2010 at 10:40 PM #

    And-yes the BIG BOMB SHELL WILL HIT….BUT it will happen on the weekend…..sorta like….last weekend(Blake resigns)…you know wouldn’t want it to have all the attention during the week…but everything is done fair in the media(N&O,ESPN..and so on)
    Got this from a lamb hoof….THE IRS maybe interested in some of those cash movements(HAHAHAHA!)
    I think we are forgeting RECUITING…..smoke really coming form that fire!!!! I under stand……….

  24. Phang 09/09/2010 at 7:44 AM #

    Some of my best friends are unc fans.

    But they are all reasonable human beings who generally have their heads screwed on OK, have reasonable priorities in life, and are generally likable people.

    But my first impressions of tarheel fans from an early age was one of condensation and snootiness. For every unc fan who is a normal human being, I can point to two that are not.

    I feel bad for the unc fans that are human. I feel bad for the players who came to get an education and play football.

    I don’t feel bad for the unc fans that are not normal human beings, nor for the players who cheated, and especially for the unc administration and BOT who made a deal with the davis.

  25. wolfonthehill 09/09/2010 at 8:17 AM #

    I feel bad for exactly zero unc-ch fans. I’m married to one – and she’s generally reasonable – but I in no way feel bad for her. She’s gotten to enjoy national championships in basketball… ACC championships in any number of sports… reasonable success in football… and all the while maintaining the “we do it the right way” mantra (which EVERY hold fan espouses).

    This is simply the reality check that says “No – you’re not different. You’re not better. You’re just another school.” That reality check was bound to hit sometime – now that it has, there’s no sympathy. They had their glory years – now it’s back to reality.

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