Friday Arroves [Check back for updates]

Big Four Rivals UNC Scandal103

We will have a lot more to come on the UNC-CHeats academic/football/agent/tutor/recruiting scandals as the afternoon progresses.

For now, the NCAA’s findings are detailed here.

The penalties in this case include the following:

* Public reprimand and censure.

* Three years of probation from March 12, 2012, through March 11, 2015.

* Three-year show-cause penalty for the former assistant football coach prohibiting any recruiting activity. The public report contains further details.

* Postseason ban for the 2012 football season.

* Reduction of football scholarships by a total of 15 during three academic years. The public report includes further details.

* Vacation of wins during the 2008 and 2009 seasons (self-imposed by the university). The public report includes further details.

* $50,000 fine (self-imposed by the university).

* Disassociation of both the former tutor and former student-athlete who served as an agent runner (self-imposed by the university).

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Big Four Rivals UNC Scandal

103 Responses to Friday Arroves [Check back for updates]

  1. Wufpacker 03/12/2012 at 4:10 PM #

    “…not accepting agent money to attend lesbian parties in Miami?”

    Let’s not get crazy, now. Despite what Carolina has or has not done, I remain firmly “Pro-lesbian party in Miami”.

  2. TLeo 03/12/2012 at 4:14 PM #

    The probation was longer than I expected but the bowl ban should be at least two years and a tv ban should have happened too imo.. NCAA pretty much lost any credibility they had left with this nonsense. They are laughing their ass off at the NCAA right now and congratulating themselves on geting away thier cheating ways again.

  3. Wufpacker 03/12/2012 at 4:19 PM #

    I would like to offer the observation that media teleconferences are a huge pain in the ass and should be discontinued immediately.

  4. Pack Mentality 03/12/2012 at 4:20 PM #

    ” Despite what Carolina has or has not done, I remain firmly “Pro-lesbian party in Miami””

    But I’d rather the Hole players not be there during my yearly trip to this event.

  5. Wufpacker 03/12/2012 at 4:26 PM #

    I see your point.

  6. CaptainCraptacular 03/12/2012 at 4:26 PM #

    Someone asked the question of when does year 1 of the scholly reduction start. Normally that would start the beginning of the academic year after the appeal was turned down but since there will be no appeal – this should start at the beginning of the 2013 fall semester I would imagine.

    If it starts this fall some kids who’ve already signed will have their schollys cut. Wouldn’t that be great press should that occur.

    USC just started their scholly reductions i believe this past fall, but they had a long appeal process as they felt the harshness of the sanctions warranted an appeal.

  7. Texpack 03/12/2012 at 4:29 PM #

    This was not out of line with what the NCAA has given other schools. Whether or not their approach to penalties is harsh enough is open for debate, (I think they are generally too light to scare people) but I don’t think UNC-CH got off light in comparison to other offenders.

  8. CaptainCraptacular 03/12/2012 at 4:29 PM #

    TV ban will never again be a potential penalty. This impacts the conference as a whole in fulfilling its TV contract.

  9. Wufpacker 03/12/2012 at 4:31 PM #

    I really like the sidestepping of the question regarding specifics of what they’re doing to make sure these “mistakes” never happen again.

  10. Hawkeye Whitney 03/12/2012 at 4:37 PM #

    Butch has a game ball, continuing salary (since he is only a consultant in the pros), and a largely unblemished record. Quite an impressive job actually. This guy is made of whatever they have to use when Teflon is too sticky.

  11. Tau837 03/12/2012 at 4:42 PM #

    Reposting this to try to understand the impact of the lost scholarships. Again, please forgive my ignorance on this.

    On this: “Reduction of football scholarships by a total of 15 during three academic years.”

    1. I assume that is inclusive of the self-imposed reduction of 9 football scholarships, right?

    2. I assume this means they can give 5 fewer scholarships per year for 3 years, meaning the following:

    Year 1: they are down 5 scholarships (what would be 5 freshmen)
    Year 2: they are down 10 scholarships (what would be 5 freshmen and 5 sophomores)
    Year 3: they are down 15 scholarships (what would be 5 freshmen, 5 sophomores, and 5 juniors)
    Year 4: they are down 15 scholarships (what would be 5 sophomores, 5 juniors, and 5 seniors)
    Year 5: they are down 10 scholarships (what would be 5 juniors and 5 seniors)
    Year 6: they are down 5 scholarships (what would be 5 seniors)

    This breakdown assumes each scholarship reduction is a scholarship lost for 4 years. Is that correct?

    If so, it looks like this hurts, especially in years 2-5. But I feel like I’m not interpreting this right, as it seems too painful to justify the comments here about them getting off easy.

  12. CaptainCraptacular 03/12/2012 at 4:46 PM #

    My understanding is that you are correct on both counts

  13. 4PackinMB 03/12/2012 at 4:59 PM #

    Here is a thought for discussion purposes…..IF the academic fraud issues have been resolved at the flagship and the ship has corrected its course, AND for as long as these issues have been exposed, shouldn’t there been some announcements regarding ineligibility of not only football players, but basketball players as well? If there hasn’t been, then have they really corrected the situation?

  14. Lumpy 03/12/2012 at 5:23 PM #

    As much as I would have loved to see the NCAA really drop the hammer, just out of spite, understand this: These penalties will cripple the UNC football program for years to come.

    This isn’t USC or Alabama where elite players will still attend even if there’s no bowl and good players that would get an offer somewhere else will walk on for a year or two before getting a scholarship. This is a huge reduction in scholarships for a middle of the road program, basically making them have to hit a home run with every recruit just to field a descent team with any depth.

    And since they’re on probation til 2015 I’m not sure how competitive in recruiting they’ll be with an NC State program on the rise. This punishment won’t be grabbing headlines away from March Madness, but it’s got teeth.

  15. tuckerdorm1983 03/12/2012 at 5:47 PM #

    post season ban will not hurt them because they will suck so bad they will not even possible to make a bowl

  16. oceanman 03/12/2012 at 5:56 PM #

    Interesting how many times the word “unethical” appears in the report. I guess that’s the “Carolina Way.”

  17. triadwolf 03/12/2012 at 6:20 PM #

    I believe Tau837 is correct with respect the scholarship reductions. There is a another compounding factor that can make this reduction even more significant – the NCAA is considering reducing the number of scholarships from 85 to 80. If that happens sooner than later, the impact of losing 5 scholies per year is even more significant (25% reduction per year).

    I for one am glad that there wasn’t a more severe post-season ban and a TV ban. Both of those result in a reduction of shared revenue for the conference. A reduction in scholarships should be the focus as that primarily just hurts UNC. Question: If UNC qualifies for a bowl (by win count) in 2012, does the ACC lose a bowl tie-in from the bowl ban? I don’t think so, but am curious if anyone knows for sure.

  18. john of sparta 03/12/2012 at 6:30 PM #

    +1 Texpack: kinda/sorta in line with others of this ilk.
    +2 lawful: ACC struggles Even More in football (see Miami).
    +3 PIR: staying clean in the Internet Age for 3 years?
    no program, not even ours, has much of a chance given the
    possibilities of a setup/sabotage/or plain old stupidity.

  19. Iremember87 03/12/2012 at 7:05 PM #

    Again….what does “probation” mean in real terms? Like if they wear a pledge pin on those blue uniforms will they get double secret probation???

  20. blpack 03/12/2012 at 7:24 PM #

    It is fairly tough, but not as much as they deserve or I’d like. We have seen a lot of change in their football organization though and it looks to be a real trade down for them in name recognition in coaches. I really think they thought they’d get away with it. They almost did. It has been an enlightening two years. The veil lifted over the Carolina Way exposing them as a fraud. We know this is the tip of the iceberg, but for now the other athletic programs survive.

  21. MARinRVA 03/12/2012 at 7:34 PM #

    No way to spin this. It’s a bad week for Tar Heel athletics. No revenge in the ACC Championship against a team that absolutely humiliated them in January. And today the football program gets slapped with a bowl ban and scholarship reductions. Those lost scholarships WILL bite, as some of you have said upstream. And no one can pretend any longer that there was no corruption in that program.

    They’ll have to get to the Final Four to wash the bitter taste out of their mouths. They can do it w/Henson back, but I doubt that they can beat UK.

  22. lawful 03/12/2012 at 7:43 PM #

    Sparta, true, wasn’t thinking about that.

  23. Wulfpack 03/12/2012 at 7:47 PM #

    Still the most baffling aspect is the way the NCAA bowed down and commended UNC for the way it handled this mess. Then I get on the radio on the way to the gym and hear how UNC’s handling of the situation mitigated their damages. Whatever.

  24. Wolf74 03/12/2012 at 7:56 PM #

    “I wouldn’t be surprised to see them in trouble again in the not too distant future. A normal response to these findings would be to admit the problem, fix it, and make sure it doesn’t happen again. I don’t see any of the Chapel Hill Admin or even the UNC system even admitting there was much of a problem…only expressing disappointment in the punishment? There’s still a culture problem in the program and I don’t see any determined effort to change it.”

    BIG OLE PLUS 1 ON THAT. I have seen nothing indicating any remorse for blatantly cheating, just for getting caught and receiving a little bad publicity and a few mild penalties. They wrote the book on cheating in basketball and there could be a very slight let up for a few months but soon, maybe not today or tomorrow, but one day they will be right back at the blatant cheating and academic fraud. On that I have no doubts. It is their culture. That my friends, is the Carolina Way.

  25. 4PackinMB 03/12/2012 at 8:06 PM #

    Wolf74, as I said earlier, if the academic fraud mess has been straightened out, then why has there been no announcements regarding ineligibility based on academics…..or did all those that had the fraudulent tutors all of a sudden get brilliant? By the way, where is Oz? Maybe that yellow brick road is actually blue? If I only had a brain…………

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