A Closer Look at UNC’s NOA

General UNC Scandal94

Does anyone else think that it is funny that McAdoo’s plagiarism on a paper where he had already been found guilty of cheating received more press coverage than an NOA with nine major violations?   Oh well, at least some in the press finally realized what the rest of us have known for the last 12 months…things are rotten in CH and the so-called adults are clueless.

While the media storm over plagiarizing is funny to watch, it doesn’t really have much to do with UNC’s hearing with the NCAA in October.   So let’s take a closer look at the NOA and see what is really there and what it could potentially mean to UNC when the penalty phase rolls around.   Also since some of the comments that I’ve read from both ends of the RTP have been based in some alternate reality, let’s see if we can ground the discussion in something closer to the real world.

Cheating, Round 1

Violation #1 documents cheating by three different athletes from April 2008 through Summer 2009.   The names have been redacted, but we can be pretty sure that part (c) covers McAdoo (unless multiple UNC players were cheating on Swahili papers).    On the one hand, this list is pretty small since UNC was able to sweep most of the cheating to the Honor Court.   But on the other hand, we have a recent precedent from FSU on the penalties for academic fraud.

For those that might have forgotten, FSU had 60+ athletes in several sports that were caught cheating in an on-line class.    Now for the good part…FSU had to forfeit every game in any sport that any of those athletes participated in.   So if UNC receives the same penalty for the same offense, then expect wins from 2008 and 2009 to start disappearing.

Based on the report at ncaa.org, it appears to me that FSU did all of the investigating of their academic scandal and forwarded their findings to the NCAA.   It would be interesting to know how much, if any, the NCAA investigated the academic issues at UNC.

PS to UNC fans…If you want to go to war against the NCAA, then I would recommend finding a better horse than McAdoo to ride into battle.

Cheating, Round 2

At first, I was surprised that the NCAA was letting UNC exploit a loophole in the NCAA’s dividing line for determining when cheating by an athlete was an NCAA offense and when it had to be handled by the university.   But then the NCAA surprised me with Violation #2 by declaring all of the “tutoring” done by Wiley after she was fired from the athletic department (and being paid by Butch) as an improper benefit.  (Nice save by the NCAA.)    So now follow this line of logic:

  • Athletes that accept “impermissible benefits” are ineligible from the moment they accept the “benefit”.
  • Their eligibility can only be restored by the NCAA.
  • The standard penalty for small, impermissible benefits is missing 30% of the season and a donation to charity equal in value to the impermissible benefit.

So who were the nine athletes and how many are still left on the team?   From THF’s Blog, here are the players that were investigated for one reason or another (reorganized):

Agent Prong:

* DT Marvin Austin(SR): Dismissed for receiving $10-13K in improper benefits; ethical conduct violation.
* DE Robert Quinn(JR): Permanently ineligible for receiving $5K in improper benefits, ethical conduct violation.
* WR Greg Little(SR): Permanently ineligible for receiving $5K in improper benefits, ethical conduct violation.
* S Deunta Williams(SR): Suspended four games for improper benefits totaling approximately $1400; became eligible for Clemson game.
* CB Kendric Burney(SR): Suspended six games for improper benefits totaling approximately $1300; suspension complete.

Honor Court Appearance:

* RB Ryan Houston(SR): Cleared following honor court date prior to UVa game. Redshirted 2010 season. Will have one season of eligibility remaining.
* DE Linwan Euwell(JR): Cleared following honor court date prior to UVa game. (missing 5 games)
* CB Kendric Burney(SR): Penalized by honor court with reduction of grade in one class. Resulted in loss of credit towards graduation an ineligibility under NCAA rules. UNC applied to the NCAA for waiver which was granted. Cleared for William & Mary game.  (missing 7 games)
* S Jonathan Smith: Declared ineligible for season following honor court date. Redshirt.
* CB Brian Gupton(JR): Declared ineligible for season following honor court date. Eligible next season.
* CB Charles Brown(SR): Declared ineligible for season following honor court date. Received two semesters probation. Redshirt.
* DE Michael McAdoo(JR): Permanently ineligible for improper academic assistance from tutor Jennifer Wiley while she was at UNC. Appeal to NCAA denied in February 2011.
* FB Devon Ramsay(JR): Initially ruled permanently ineligible for improper academic assistance from tutor Jennifer Wiley while she was at UNC. Initial ruling was overturned in February 2011. Ramsay was cleared and will have one season of eligibility remaining.

Cleared without Honor Court:

* LB Bruce Carter(SR): Cleared on academic issues for LSU game  (missing 0 games)
* LB Quan Sturdivant(SR): Cleared on academics issues  for LSU game  (missing 0 games)
* RB Shaun Draughn(SR): Cleared on academic issues for Georgia Tech game  (missing 1 game)
* S Da’Norris Searcy(SR): Cleared on academic issues for ECU game  (missing 3 games)

(Emphasis and games missed added)

It seems logical to conclude that 8 of the 9 athletes with free “tutoring” (NCAA violation) were the ones that were sent to the UNC Honor Court for cheating.   (We don’t know who the ninth player is, but I’ll take “Greg Little” if we’re taking bets.)  These eight players met the first part of the standard penalty for academic fraud by sitting out at least 30% of the schedule (4 games).    But as far as I know, UNC has not declared any players ineligible for taking impermissible benefits from Wiley nor have they appealed to the NCAA to have their eligibility reinstated.   

Unless I’m missing something, UNC will want to get this issue resolved well before their October meeting with the NCAA.    They went to a lot of effort last year to make sure that the players on the field were actually eligible.   It would be silly to abandon that process now.

On the one hand, getting free tutoring isn’t the most serious issue that UNC faces.   However, did the players go to Wiley for free tutoring or free cheating?   It’s hard to argue that there is a logical, ethical reason to bypass department tutors and go to someone who was fired from that capacity.   Of course we shouldn’t forget that this tutor was hired by Butch AFTER being fired OR that Butch was paying her while she was helping his players cheat.   In the end, it will be interesting to hear what the NCAA has to say about this whole sordid issue.

 

They won’t talk to us

Violation #3 (Wiley) and #8 (Blake) won’t talk to the NCAA.    It seems to me that this puts both the NCAA and UNC in a hard sport.   Neither group has subpoena authority and thus can’t make anyone talk that doesn’t want to.    The NCAA can’t afford to let this pass because they depend on cooperation from its member institutions.    Without the ability to obtain subpoenas, the NCAA really can’t operate without that cooperation.   Making the gross assumption that UNC really wanted those two to talk, they also have no way of compelling either individual to talk. 

So do these two violations really mean anything?  It’s hard to say for sure and I expect that we will still be uncertain after the penalties are announced.   Unless the NCAA includes something specific in the final report, I suspect that these two violations are more smoke than substance.

Agents, Round 1

Violation #4 is seven athletes receiving from $54 to $13,507 from agents and others (not including Wiley’s largesse).    Other than noting that none of the referenced instances go back before 2009, I think that this point has been adequately dissected over the last year.

Lying to the NCAA

Yea, like that was hard to predict.   The instances from Violation #5 sound like they can all be attributed to little ole Marvin.   My guess is that this won’t blow back on UNC.   However in Violation #8, John Blake, assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator, lied to the NCAA while he was still employed by UNC.    This will definitely blow back on UNC come this October.

Agents, Round 2

Violations #6 and #7:   John Blake worked for and received money from Wichard while he was also employed by UNC.    This issue could be a key point in the penalties levied by the NCAA.  But for some reason, I keep hearing well known theme music playing in the background and the following lines from one of my favorite TV shows:

As always, should you or any of your IM force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck, Jim. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds.

Blake was hired to do a job and he knew the risks going into it.   He did what he did willingly and it’s unlikely that we will ever know the full extent of his violations.   A number of people have claimed that UNC threw Blake under the bus in an attempt to save Davis and the school.   But in reality, everyone involved knew what would happen if Blake got caught…just like Jim Phelps.

The Rogue Coach Defense

I expect that UNC will argue that Blake operated behind everyone’s back and that there is no way that anyone at UNC could have known.   Even if we ignore Blake’s reputation, this defense doesn’t stand up to any sort of examination.   Follow this line of logic and see if you can spot any weaknesses:

  • A number of different universities have self-reported secondary violations for contact with recruits during mandated “quiet” periods.
  • These violations were uncovered by examining phone records from the coaching staffs.
  • Blake used his university supplied phone to carry on many, many conversations with Wichard (sports agent and “former” employer).

This leaves us with the following possibilities:

  • UNC never audited Blake’s (ie the recruiting coordinator’s) phone.
  • UNC audited Blake’s phone, but didn’t detect that he was talking to an agent that he used to work for.
  • UNC knew that he was talking to Wichard, but didn’t care.

In other words, UNC knew or should have known that Blake was carrying on nearly-continuous communication with a sport’s agent.   Unfortunately, phone records were not included in the NOA’s examples in Violation #9 for failure to monitor.   So we’ll just have to wait and see what the NCAA has to say about Mr. Blake.   (But if I were a UNC fan, I would be very, very worried about this point.)

Failure to Monitor

Violation #9 can be translated as:    Those silly kids were blabbing all over the World Wide Web and there weren’t any adults in Chapel Hill that ever bothered to look.

The real question is what is the NCAA going to do about it?    There is almost no doubt that the final penalties will drone on and on about how terrible this is.   But are there specific penalties associated with sleeping at the switch?    

Who Cares About Forfeited Wins?

There might be more than old W/L records at stake.  Let’s look at the following questions:

  • How many seasons were ineligible players used to qualify for a bowl game?
  • How many bowl games did ineligible players participate in?

When the NCAA looked over these issues for USC, they decided some payback was in order.   I believe that the NCAA used a 1:1 correlation to establish USC’s bowl ban.   Obviously there are no guarantees, but it’s something to look for.

So What’s Next?

I’m betting on:

  • October hearing
  • UNC’s self-imposed penalties (Quit laughing…I wasn’t joking.)
  • NCAA’s penalties

There are several SFN authors that disagree with me, but I believe that the NCAA concluded their investigations before issuing the NOA.   All of the projections about upcoming pain and agony from rotating license tags, 216 cell phones, and academic investigations sound to me like just more noise from message boards.   I believe that the NCAA has either looked at these issues or were not interested.   Don’t forget that just because UNC didn’t release something to the media, this doesn’t mean that they didn’t release it to the NCAA.   (Remember that the NCAA found out that Wiley paid for $1,800 worth of parking tickets.)

Unlike Dave Glenn, the NCAA convicts on facts not smoke.   While I don’t believe that they have found everything, I believe that they have completed their work unless some other issue comes to light.

About VaWolf82

Engineer living in Central Va. and senior curmudgeon amongst SFN authors One wife, two kids, one dog, four vehicles on insurance, and four phones on cell plan...looking forward to empty nest status. Graduated 1982

General UNC Scandal

94 Responses to A Closer Look at UNC’s NOA

  1. packplantpath 07/21/2011 at 12:08 PM #

    VA isn’t saying he originally received an F from the professor for the paper. We don’t know what the professor graded prior to knowing it was copied, at least I don’t think we do. VA is saying the honor court’s original punishment for the cheating was an F on the assignment.

    I think.

  2. rtpack24 07/21/2011 at 12:09 PM #

    VaWolf82 great job. On point and factual. Before this year I can not remember a player from a revenue sport ever missing a game for any academic reason. They might be the only school in ACC that can make that claim, which really makes you wonder. Back in the 80’s all the football and basketball players took Portugese for their language requirement. I will say I do believe (for good reason) that another shoe will drop in the not too distant future and it will make quite a bit of noise.

  3. newt 07/21/2011 at 12:15 PM #

    I don’t care about the NCAA’s findings and punishments for two reasons:

    1 – UNC football hasn’t done anything of note, so the NCAA can’t really hurt UNC by punishing football. Judging by attendance, only three rich boosters care about football at UNC anyway. Now if this investigation grew to basketball, that would be different.

    2 – As an NC State fan, I know it’s not the NCAA findings that matter. The NCAA found very little on NC State. Rather, it’s the public perception and school’s reaction that hurts. Unfortunately, UNC has shown no inclination to act as we did. And here is why the plagarism and public perception is important – shine a light on the academics and UNC might just have to raise the bar from within, and that would hurt performance in all sports. I remember the biggest sin at NC State was the belief that athletes were enabled to slip by in class.

  4. IamGumbyDammit 07/21/2011 at 12:22 PM #

    packplantpath thanks – I went back and re-read an earlier post by VaWolf and I agree. I misiterpreted it that he was saying in a later post to mean what the UNX monkeyboarders have said that the professor failed the paper, but he IS saying that the UNX Honor Board failed him for the limited citiation-help cheating, not the now-evident extensive plagiarism cheating, and an F is an F. My bad.

  5. IamGumbyDammit 07/21/2011 at 12:44 PM #

    VaWolf, what’s your thought on this: (and sorry for my earlier misinterpretation on the F matter) – regarding violations 3 and 8, I think the NCAA is on dangerous grounds by asserting non-cooperation violations and then NOT bringing the hammer because the accused parties refuse to cooperate. That could set the behavioral precedent that institutions instruct individuals not to cooperate, pay them handsomely (under the table) to clam up and go away, sever any “formal” relationship between these individuals and the institution, then claim “oh, well…WE (the institution) cooperated but those rogue bad agents did not and you shouldn’t punish us for their bad acts and non-cooperation” – you know, everything UNX has done so far. In other words, if the NCAA doesn’t “bring it” – severely – on these matters, then everyone else will adopt the “Carolina Way defense” to deal with NCAA charges. I would think that bringing heavy sanctions would give the accused institution grounds to seek civil damages against these non-cooperative parties, based on a claim that their failure to cooperate resulted in damages to the University. What other legal means are there to force (or at least try to force) cooperation?

  6. db321 07/21/2011 at 12:49 PM #

    Now you got it IamGumbyDammit…McAdoo did get a F via the honor court ruling as he should have for getting the tutor to add the footnotes, which is all that was brought before the honor court. However, that doesn’t mean the investigation should end right there. The plagarism discovery points out that the professor was allowing these guys to pass while turning in bogus work. He would have had two opportunities to point out the blantant plagarism and there is simply no way this would have gotten by any legitimate professor or a team of educators truly investigating academic cheating.

    The fact UNC didn’t bring the plagarism before the honor court points to institutional cheating by the professor at minimum and possibly a coverup by UNC’s administration. There’s simply no way around that and both of those types of cheating are far worse than a single student cheating by getting a tutor to add some footnotes for them. UNC has tried to downplay this by blaming on not having the proper plagarism software, etc., etc. but any educator with half a brain could have detected this blatant plagarism. There is a huge story here and lots of quesions need to be answered due to this plagarism discovery.

  7. wolf_at_my_door 07/21/2011 at 12:55 PM #

    As for the NCAA being through with UNC once you have committed violations they have you on their radar. Ask SMU.

    The Holes are arrogant and will continue to cheat until the NCAA makes them suffer.

    And let’s not forget that this cheating is systemic in Chapel Hill. The NCAA will be looking at other sports.

    jmho

  8. blpack 07/21/2011 at 1:07 PM #

    Once this drifts into other sports, football is as good as dead and who knows where things will stop.

  9. VaWolf82 07/21/2011 at 1:16 PM #

    I’m still trying to find where it was cited that McAD’oh! originally got an “F” for the paper prior to the Honor Court.

    It is my understanding that the grade was changed to an F by the Honor Court.

  10. VaWolf82 07/21/2011 at 1:21 PM #

    VaWolf, what’s your thought on this: – regarding violations 3 and 8, I think the NCAA is on dangerous grounds by asserting non-cooperation violations and then NOT bringing the hammer because the accused parties refuse to cooperate

    That’s what I meant when I said that non-cooperation puts both the NCAA and the UNC in a bad place. One the one hand, the NCAA can’t let schools get away with hiding the bad eggs once they get caught. On the other hand, UNC can’t force cooperation even if they wanted to.

    So I think that the NCAA will SAY alot of bad things about this. But I’m not sure that they are going to DO anything.

  11. db321 07/21/2011 at 1:42 PM #

    It might be a tough situation for the NCAA but if they don’t drop the hammer in situations like these where the accused simply won’t cooperate and don’t answer questions, then the silence will start to happen in every other school investigation going forward. It would also encourage schools to advise these accused violators to remain silence. Matter of fact, it might encourage instituations to simply get confidentiality agreements in place with these “rogue” coaches and tutors, etc. at the time they dismiss them. For instance, they could have gone to Blake and said we are going to lay all of this on you and fire you and you get nothing, no money, or we can offer you a $100,000 severance package as long as you sign this confidentiality agreement and remain silent. To be honest, i wonder if UNC didn’t get a confidentiality agreeement in place with Blake…surely they got something in return for paying him a “severance package”.

    In addition, if the NCAA doesn’t do anything in these cases where nobody talks, then the incentive is still there for these institutions to continue to hire unethical people with a wink wink and nod that they are going to keep quiet if they get caught. Ultimately the university is responsible for who they hire and employ and they need to be encouraged to hire people with more integrity than a John Blake who cheats left and right and then refuses to talk to anyone about where all the bodies are buried. Ultimately UNC is responsible for what their employees do and there’s enough smoke to drop the hammer in regards to this situation.

  12. notagain 07/21/2011 at 2:09 PM #

    A little off topic here but I have to give a little credit to mcadoo…I have been copying and pasting all day (my work of course- applied to different things) and it is one heck of an undertaking as it is quite tedious. I cannot imagine making a habit out of this as it appears our friend mcadoo has

  13. packhammer 07/21/2011 at 2:33 PM #

    It has never been clear to me who took McAdoo to the Honor Court in the first place on the three different classes/incidents of cheating. Wouldn’t his professors have had to do that? Or the T.A.? Could another student have turned him in? Maybe it is burried in the exhibits but I could not find it. Anyway, said person would be interesting to hear from about all this.

    By the way, I just watched the Pigskin Preview. Butch Davis makes me want to puke. He just plain looks guilty to me. His three main talking points are: 1.The “review” will be over soon. 2. I can’t talk about it. 3. Lots of other schools are also being “reviewed” just like us.

  14. runwiththepack 07/21/2011 at 2:36 PM #

    Newt,

    “the plagarism and public perception is important – shine a light on the academics and UNC might just have to raise the bar from within, and that would hurt performance in all sports. I remember the biggest sin at NC State was the belief that athletes were enabled to slip by in class.”

    I’m with you on that point. I think one could go much further.

    Do NOT think that the carefully crafted image of UNC in the media as “elite” has NOT helped them enormously. This image is exaggerated, of course.

    Combine that exaggeration with the media exaggeration of NCSU’s shortcomings, and thus it is clear to see that good students, as well as athletes, are steered to Chapel Hill unethically. If a statement is repeated often enough, it comes to be regarded as truth. I hear it all the time from people who have no knowledge of either institution.

    A young lady who was helping me with clerical work part time several years ago hissed at me “State is just a HIGH SCHOOL!”. As I tried briefly to explain to her glaring face that the statement is ridiculous, I quickly concluded that I couldn’t talk sense to someone whose opinion was formed from a lifetime (as young as it was) of media and social bias. THIS from a high school grad, and not a very good one at that, living in a trailer park, who i asked whether she is a carolina or State fan.

    This is just one of many occurrences of this sort that show the kind of Chapel Hill arrogance and entitlement that I would MOST love to see blown to bits.

    Smacking the football program is a good start, but what I would really love to see is the image of the entire institution examined and Chapel Hill exposed for what it really is – a LOT more mediocre than it is portrayed.

  15. GAWolf 07/21/2011 at 3:17 PM #

    McAdoo calling it his own work isn’t as bad as the adults over there doing so.

  16. Gowolves 07/21/2011 at 3:27 PM #

    Looks that it is confirmed that Davis is going to release his personal phone records. I don’t think they will find much

  17. Hungwolf 07/21/2011 at 3:46 PM #

    N&O just posted a story about Davis releasing his phone records. Thsi is after he admits UNC’s attorney has reviewed them and after he omitts anything he wishes.

    I thought his comments that he doesn’t know and doesn’t need to know comments were interesting. He bascially says the NCAA investigation is Baddour, Thorpe’s, and the compliance officer’s responsibility and that he is ethical. I find this an interesting turn of events, so he is he going to claim he is clean and the school is dirty? Sounds like a man expecting his full pay of a contract, claiming he has done nothing wrong. Which means in order to do that and have the NCAA find major infractions, he is going to have to say the school’s AD, school’s admin, and complaince officer failed to do their jobs!

    Looks like everyone at the Hill going to need to lawyer up and the finger pointing has begun!

  18. Hungwolf 07/21/2011 at 3:54 PM #

    Davis: “..there’s a lot of things I don’t need to know, don’t know, they’ve handled everything.”

    Just the kind of dumbass you want to be responsible for your kid and run your football program. I guess he’s done such a good job not knowing in the past, why change things now! You couldn’t ask for a better coach at your rival school!

  19. wolfpacker 07/21/2011 at 4:01 PM #

    And McAdoo’s paper was his own work…yeah, that’s right.

    These guys keep making silly mistakes. They are at the very least feeling some heat now. Why don’t they just tell the truth?

    They are running out of defenses. They made themselves look like the biggest FOOLS on the planet when the paper turned out the way it did.

    This is the final straw…the strategy of sending Friday out to tell everyone to “move on” didn’t work, so now we’ll send our ethical head coach out to tell everyone that he’s ethical. Why does he have to tell us he’s ethical? Anyone believe him?

    And McAdoo’s paper was McAdoo’s work…

  20. Pack78 07/21/2011 at 4:03 PM #

    ^^The quote above is telling; I can’t wait to see the court fight between BMFD’s lawyers and unx’ lawyers over whether unx has to pay BMFD’s buy-out after he is finally canned. Of couse, they are both holding a big can of beans on each other that neither can afford to see spilled…

  21. Hungwolf 07/21/2011 at 4:12 PM #

    UNC was just publicly put on notice by Davis! Davis understands public perception and the media, he did work at ESPN. I say his next move to hold UNC hostage is he may just claim in October that he cleaning up UNC just like he cleaned up Miami. That the school was lacking in compliance for “all” its athletes and that he has been ethical while working in a “dirty” environment. That he is glad the NCAA is involved and he working side by side with them to help UNC.

    They should have fired the sleeze ball when they had the chance!

  22. wolfpacker 07/21/2011 at 4:24 PM #

    What timing…this is a PLOY to get you EYES off of the NEW ISSUE at HAND.

    ACADEMIC FRAUD

    We know butch davis is a joke…now let’s get to the real issue.

    http://tinyurl.com/3gvzs7z

    hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

    “Because what gets lost in this, is that it’s about kids, it’s about education. And the one thing we wanted to do as an institution is allow Michael to stay on scholarship and finish his education if that’s his choice.”

    hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

    You call what he is getting an education…in what? CUT-and-PASTE?

    As for the administration at unc, let’s get the guy to a level where he realizes that ‘arrove’ is not a word. Let’s get him to where he can at least sound like he can graduate from high school.

    hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

  23. wolfacct 07/21/2011 at 4:43 PM #

    Seems Butch will have to take responsibility for the hiring of Black Santa. I doubt his feigned ignorance will hold water when it comes to the agent/runner on the sideline. Everyone in the coaching community knew Blake’s reputation. Just ask the ‘ol ball coach down at the other “Carolina.”

  24. TruthBKnown Returns 07/21/2011 at 4:49 PM #

    About the 216 phone records… I don’t expect anything unusual to be found there since Butch did not turn over his resignation along with those phone records.

  25. Hungwolf 07/21/2011 at 5:09 PM #

    Truthdknown, I don’t expect anything out fo the 216 records either. They already been examined by UNX attorneys and Butch already said all personal calls will not be released. So don’t expect calls to Blake that personal in nature, calls to “personal” tutors, calls to professors that are “personal” friends, etc. Chief claims he had that phone for ten years. I say he kept it cause he never planned on being in Chapel Hill long. This NCAA mess has derailed his big ego plan of landing a bigger college job or another NFL gig.

    Notice he didn’t get asks by the media today: “How’s Recruiting going coach?” Wonder if the UNC BOG will have some different questions, now that the media does?

    I must admit personal satisfaction in watching UNC experience that type of press conference. UNC can expect it all year. Not going to be many questions about the players or what is happening on the field!

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