Scandal odds and ends ***6/25 update with Fox piece from Evans and N & O parking coverage***

I know the scandal is busy when I have to write these potpouri entries covering several different articles.  I can remember when SFN was about the only outlet covering this thing.  Good to see everyone finally getting in the pool.

Way too much to comment on at length, here are some various things from the last two days in “InfoPack” style.

***I am putting the update up front.***

This morning Thayer Evans from Fox posted this great column about UNC-CH’s “control” issues.  An excerpt:

It wasn’t a lack of institutional control when former Tar Heels assistant coach John Blake received $31,000 working as a runner for a sports agent, tutors did work for players and seven players received more than $27,000 in impermissible benefits from agents, former players like Chris Hawkins and former tutor Jennifer Wiley.

Just like it wasn’t a lack of institutional control that Blake lied to NCAA investigators, Wiley knowingly broke NCAA rules and refused to cooperate with NCAA investigators, and an unidentified Tar Heels player lied to NCAA investigators.

It also wasn’t a lack of institutional control that North Carolina failed to adequately monitor Hawkins’ use of university facilities and access to players, didn’t check players’ Twitter accounts that showed violations, and decided against investigating impermissible benefits after a player reported the possibility.

…

Count me as relieved to hear the Tar Heels truly had everything under control the entire time.

Also, this morning the N & O ran an article from Giglio that covered the parking information that came out yesterday.  I don’t notice anything new, but there is so much to keep track of I am not sure.  My favorite quote:

It does not appear that the university researched how the vehicles were aquired by the players.

You don’t say!  We are all amazed!

***end of 6/25 update***

Leading off is this FANTASTIC column by Scott Mooneyham from the Elizabeth City paper.  He nails everything.  The entire thing is SFN required reading.  Here is a sample:

What Davis has done is tarnish both the athletic and academic reputation of the state’s flagship university.

So far, though, the only harkening sound from over on the hill is equivocation. Or, is it just plain silence?

That so many who have nurtured and protected that reputation for so many years — Bill Friday, C.D. Spangler, Paul Hardin, Erskine Bowles — haven’t publicly called for Davis’ head is the saddest part of the whole sorry episode.

The NCAA report makes clear that the scandal marks the most significant wrongdoing in a collegiate sports program in North Carolina since a basketball point-shaving scandal enveloped UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University during the early 1960s.

Next we will look at this WRAL piece from this afternoon about the parking tickets.  Apparently our friend Greg Little was quite the car enthusiast, racking up 93 parking tickets!

One of the cars, a gray Dodge Charger, is registered to his father, Gregory Lamar Little. Tickets were issued to that VIN number with three different license plates, including one 24-hour period where it got two tickets and had two different plates. The car with that VIN number got at least 16 tickets.

One of those plates doesn’t exist according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. Another one of the plates is a 30-day temporary tag.

Along with the Charger, Little is responsible for the tickets issued to a green BMW, a black Acura, a gray Nissan and a black Honda.

Wow!  I have not owned that many cars in my entire life.  How does a college kid have access to that many cars?  Also, check out this tweet from an alert Erin Summers responding to that newly-realeased parking ticket information:

ErinESummers Erin Summers
So this parking tix list doesn’t add up to the last received by #UNC – Austin not on the list, several cars, license plates missing…
1 hour ago

That can’t be!  UNC-CH has been so open and honest through this whole process.  Of course there is no way they are trying to hide anything.  It looks like ESPN picked up today’s parking ticket story.

Next is this article from WRAL with some quotes from Bill Friday that are just hilarious:

“It’s been a difficult time but like good North Carolinians we’ve admitted we’ve made the mistake,” said Friday. “Now let’s move on.”

Friday says he supports the way Chancellor Holden Thorp has handled the situation, and trusts Thorp’s judgment when it comes to head Coach Butch Davis, a man Friday says he’s never met.

“My position is one of supporting Chancellor Thorp because I believe his heart is in the right place,” said Friday. “I think he’s trying to do what’s right. And I think he will.”

He trusts Thorp because Thorp’s “heart is in the right place.”  Unreal.  This is how we were treated in 1989-90 right?

Next are two articles from The News and Observer Thursday that are actually good.  The first from Caulton Tudor of all people.  Caulton identifies five questions that would be good for the press to follow up on:

1.Where did former tutor Jennifer Wiley get the money to pay off almost $2,000 in parking ticket fees and air travel for players?

…

2. …seven players are said to have received more than $27,000 in illegal benefits during 2009 and 2010 from an assortment of agents, former Carolina players and a Florida-based jeweler.

Coach Butch Davis is not charged with having knowledge of any of those infractions, but why didn’t he know?

…

3. … former associate head coach and top recruiter John Blake is said to have steered players directly to the late agent Gary Wichard.

How was Blake running such an elaborate and blatantly unethical operation without the knowledge of someone on the football or athletic department staffs?

4. Upon Blake’s early September resignation following the season-opening game – more than two months into the investigation – he was paid almost $75,000 in severance.

Why was Blake paid anything? He wasn’t fired. He quit.

5. In the ninth and final allegation, the NCAA asserts that Carolina was advised by a player in 2009 of possible infractions and did not adequately investigate.

How could that have possibly happened?

Welcome to the party, Caulton!  Good luck getting answers to those questions from UNC-CH’s open and honest administration.  The second article from the N & O Thursday was this one from J.P. Giglio that explains that UNC-CH redacted the names of two employees from the NOA:

The names of the two employees in question were redacted in the ninth enumerated violation with a specific reference to the interactions of Chris Hawkins, a former UNC player who has been defined by the NCAA as a runner for an agent. The NCAA has asked UNC for a summary of information regarding Hawkins’ interaction with one of the employees and a second employee’s approval of Hawkins’ presence at the athletic facilities.

Inconsistencies

There were also several inconsistencies in the redaction of names of individuals involved directly with the violations, specifically former university tutor Jennifer Wiley, former NFL agent Gary Wichard and former UNC football player Kentwan Balmer.

Hiding information?  Incosistencies?  From “open an honest” UNC-CH?  Say it isn’t so!

This piece from the Columbus Dispatch explains that the Ohio State Trustees are investigating the compliance office and practices at the school.  Amazing!  Of course, at UNC-CH, where there are much more far-reaching problems, apparently the only thing the trustees care about is how the scandals may be impacting recruiting.

I will end today with a “lighter side of the news” segment.  In this piece, the DTH continued its brave reporting, publishing details about the parking tickets.  It also set out some research they did regarding the phone records.  Check this out:

And when the NCAA began interviewing members of the football program on July 12, 2010, Baddour made seven calls or texts, including one to a landscaper, before calling Amy Herman, associate athletic director for compliance, at just after 6 p.m., and then again at 9:12 p.m., for a total of three minutes.

Baddour followed that with a 38-minute call to the UNC football office at 9:17.

Davis’ only recorded calls that day were to a prepaid New York number and a golf course in Southern Pines.

So, on the first day the NCAA is on campus interviewing the football team, Baddour called his landscaper before his compliance director?  Looks like Butch may have changed his tee time!  There does not appear to be a climate of concern.  Also, what is a “prepaid new York number”? 

Stay tuned.