Sunday Samplings

'11 Football College Football Pro Sports UNC Scandal13

August 7, 2011

NC STATE FOOTBALL

JP Giglio (N&O)
ACC’s Atlantic Division has plenty to prove

Everyone’s a winner in July.

The unproven quarterback will be the Next Big Thing, the young offensive linemen will mesh by Columbus Day and the only way your team could possibly lose is to the No. 1 team in the country … on the road … in triple overtime … due to a horrendous officiating error. Despite that epic loss, your team will rebound to win the rest of its games and ride off into the BCS sunset.

Tim Hall (WRALSportsFan.com)
Jerricho Cotchery wanted out

“He feels disrespected by the moves from the past two years, with the trades and being relegated to the third receiver,” a player close to Cotchery said. “He wants a fresh start. I don’t blame him one bit.”

That’s a quote from Rich Cimini’s story for ESPNNewYork.com about the Jets’ move to cut former N.C. State wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery.

Rich Cimini (ESPNNewYork.com)
Jerricho Cotchery wanted Jets release?

Ryan declined to provide any specifics, except to say he tried to change Cotchery’s mind. This had been building for several months. Cotchery, unhappy with his role as the No. 3 receiver, approached the organization after last season and asked to be traded, sources said.

The final straw apparently was the Plaxico Burress signing, which happened last Sunday. At that point, the Jets gave Cotchery’s agent permission to speak to teams about a potential trade, a league source said.

UNC FALLOUT

Ken Tysiac (N&O)
What went wrong with compliance at UNC

Thirteen months after NCAA investigators first visited the University of North Carolina campus, the school is in turmoil.

The investigation into impermissible benefits and academic misconduct has led to allegations of nine major NCAA violations plus revelations that fewer than a dozen players incurred hundreds of parking tickets as well as a failure by the school’s honor court to identify plagiarism in a football player’s term paper. UNC officials missed some opportunities to catch some of these problems, and now are dealing with a fractured campus community. The dismissal of football coach Butch Davis on July 27 has divided UNC supporters, with some criticizing chancellor Holden Thorp for the decision, others for the timing of the firing nine days before the start of preseason practice.

T. KEUNG HUI (N&O)
UNC-CH athletic tutoring praised by panel

A University of North Carolina system task force that is recommending greater oversight over athletic programs has praise for UNC-Chapel Hill’s embattled academic support program.

The program has come under scrutiny after the university acknowledged that some football players had gotten improper academic help from a tutor. The tutors come under the academic support program.

A report from the UNC Task Force on Athletics and Academics identifies the UNC-CH academic support program as one of “several effective practices at UNC Institutions.” The report, released to the media Friday in advance of a UNC Board of Governors meeting next week, points to the processes for hiring, training and supervising academic support personnel at UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State and UNC Charlotte.

About 1.21 Jigawatts

Class of '98, Mechanical Engineer, State fan since arriving on campus and it's been a painful ride ever since. I live by the Law of NC State Fandom, "For every Elation there is an equal and opposite Frustration."

'11 Football College Football Pro Sports UNC Scandal

13 Responses to Sunday Samplings

  1. ppack3 08/07/2011 at 8:57 AM #

    A report from the UNC Task Force on Athletics and Academics identifies the UNC-CH academic support program as one of “several effective practices at UNC Institutions.”

    Because, God forbid, this ‘Task Force’ wasn’t put together in order to identify the SEVERAL INEFFECTIVE practices at UNC Institutions!

  2. logarithm 08/07/2011 at 8:59 AM #

    I was thinking about our offense yesterday and I’m more and more optimistic about our passing game thanks to tight ends and backs who are receiving threats. We could go into Tallahassee undefeated. I guess Giglio’s got a point.

    So their tutoring does on OK job aside from one known corrupt, cheating tutor at UNC-CH? People who were supposed to know what they were talking about also said McAdoo did an OK job of writing a paper on Swahili culture, aside from the citations page. Color me unconvinced by this message of “it’s not actually bad” unless there’s a point to be made about how the same system has worked fine at State and Charlotte.

    It’s been said before but I’m agreeing more and more that the state and media can’t be counted on to seek the truth or reprimand the cheaters and they’ll make us all pay by calling this the failure of the system, not one program. It’s up to the NCAA to hammer them to an unparalleled degree for their unparalleled laundry list of violations.

  3. Spooler89 08/07/2011 at 10:23 AM #

    I would have to agree with the “Task Force” on academic support at UNC-Cheat. It has been very effective at keeping academic exceptions eligible to compete in Basketball and Football. With that kind of help, maybe I could have been awarded a Doctorate instead of a B.A.

  4. IamGumbyDammit 08/07/2011 at 11:31 AM #

    The only way the UNC Task Force on Athletics and Academics could possibly have arrove at that conclusion is if they never actually wrote that paper, but instead they had a tutor do it for them.

  5. Baylisascaris 08/07/2011 at 12:16 PM #

    JPG lost a little credibility with me for not listing our game with FSU as a key game.

  6. Greywolf 08/07/2011 at 1:34 PM #

    Defending the Academic Support program is a red herring defense. The Academic Support program being a good program is not in question, nor is the Honor Code or Honor Court. The character of the UNX football players, coaches, and athletic administration is what is smelling up the scene here. Thorpe, Bad-odor, Davis and the win-at-all-cost boosters are using tactics similar to those Johnny Cochran used to defend OJ Simpson. There is no way to successfully attack the Academic Support program, Honor Code or Honor Court (nor is there any need to.) The Academic Support program, Honor Code or Honor Court will be found to be in good standing and the Johnny C conclusion, therefore the football players, coaches and administration is in good standing and needs no further investigation, i.e., the UNX football players, coaches, and athletic administration need no further investigation. They are going to get away with it if State grads don’t keep a steady barrage of complaints. And I guaran-damn-tee you State will be made to be the bad guy in this before it’s over.

  7. Hungwolf 08/07/2011 at 3:44 PM #

    Thought Ken Tysiac had a good article (it also appeared in the Charlotte Observer on front page of sports section) but it missed the point. To me it is the most damning article yet of UNC-CHeat to appear in the paper.

    To me the point shouldn’t have been was has UNC missed,but what else do we not know? Because at this point UNC-CHeat has only reported or found what it has been forced to? Packpride found the plagarism, Marvin and other players interent postings forced the NCAA to come calling along with reporting by other teams’ coaches, a lawsuit for releases of records forced the parking ticket issues to be found, and worst of all the NCAA followed up a player reporting comliance issues when UNC itself ignored the player.

    UNC missed all this, yet still is allowed to investigate themselves. Truely our BOG and the UNC trustees have no shame or interity!

  8. 61Packer 08/07/2011 at 4:05 PM #

    Please remember that the News & Observer editorial board has never called for Davis, Baddour or Thorp to resign, let alone never calling for the expulsion of any players who publically admitted wrongdoings- i.e. cheating.

    But you can bet your last dollar had this instead been NCSU or Duke, the N&O (and probably the Charlotte Observer as well) would’ve been cranking out daily lead editorials calling for dismissals left and right.

  9. highstick 08/07/2011 at 7:08 PM #

    The Charlotte Disturber article left me scratching my head..There were certainly more “bullet points” than Tysiac mentioned.

    However, during the past week, I’ve talked to several of my Tarhole cohorts who are pretty rationale..They are really pissed, both that Butch was not canned earlier and that Thorp has bungled the handling of the whole situation.

    They all acknowledged though that Thorp’s hands were tied by Winston.

    I’d also bet they are “holding their breath” about the basketball team. They have been embarrassed..We just need to make sure we embarrass them for 25 years more!

  10. WolftownVA81 08/07/2011 at 8:51 PM #

    Another puff piece by the N&O. Hey Ken, it’s easy to miss stuff when you’re not really looking. Can he believe that people are so stupid to believe this line that “hey, how did all this bad stuff just happen at Carolina?” It happens because it’s allowed to happen. It’s called a culture of entitlement and officially sanctioned abuses. How about a few a few hard hitting questions for a change instead of the softballs? It’s time to start calling out the adults that are/were in charge. This crap is almost as bad as totally ignoring the issues – which the N&O has done for the past year.

  11. Wolfy__79 08/07/2011 at 10:16 PM #

    all you really hear about concerning acc football is how va tech is going to get over the hump and contend for a nc or how fsu is back to the glory days of the 90’s?? i’m still waiting. oh, and then there are stories, and i mean tall tales, of unc-ch having a football program?! we haven’t knocked it out of the park over the past decade but have some success and could be poised for a strong run towards our first acc crown in decades.. so what does the n&o bring up? fsu is the favorite and clemson is runner up? clemson, yes, we suffered a heartbreaking loss to them last year but their coach is on a “tenuous” hot seat for the simple fact that.. they should have never fired bowden and realize that now that sweenuts sucks. either this year or the next we’ll be ACC champs.. first of many to come. PACK!!

  12. Wolfy__79 08/07/2011 at 10:21 PM #

    jericho never has gotten much love with the jets.. all he does is make the tough grabs whilst braylon or santon get the cute calls. he’s not the next to or 85.. but he’s made some nice contributions to the jets lackluster offense the past couple of seasons. i hope the chargers can make some room for jericho and show how productive he can be as a wide receiver!

  13. Wolfy__79 08/07/2011 at 10:24 PM #

    witnessing this whole soap opera over in chapel hill has had me on the edge of my seat.. i’m on the fence on whether or not they can escape this mess they’ve created for themselves? my instinct tells me that they’ve already gotten away with it, but this summers findings have given me some hope that their ways will be finally discovered.. maybe someone will “spill the beans?”

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