The heavy hand of the absolutist National Collegiate Athletic Association thundered mightily on the evil deeds of one University of North Carolina football program banning the Tar Heels from the postseason for one year, reducing the number of scholarships available, and placing the program on its "double secret" three-years' probation.
The NCAA's ruling caps a two-year investigation that led to the dismissal of head coach Butch Davis and the athletic director, Dick Baddour. Players received jewelry and other gifts from people outside of the program as well as receiving improper tutoring help on term papers.
Nfl 2012
Davis cooperated with the investigation and, as many Division I coaches do, implemented several strategies to make sure events like these did not occur. Davis now works for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and was never mentioned as having committed any violation. It seems the dirty deeds belonged to former assistant coach John Blake and a former UNC student and tutor named Jennifer Wiley, who allegedly provided too much assistance on research papers as well as other improper benefits.
Blake supposedly received ,000 from his long-time friend, Gary Wichard. Problem is...Wichard is an NFL player's agent and the NCAA says that the ,000 was paid to Blake as a representative of Wichard's firm. Blake and Wichard say it was one friend helping out another. As a result of the NCAA sanctions, Blake received a three-year "show cause" penalty meaning, for the most part, that he is not permitted to recruit college football players.
The university attempted to preempt any NCAA sanctions by investigating the matter and immediately instituting self-imposed penalties that included vacating all 16 wins from the 2008 and 2009 seasons, a reduction of nine scholarships over the next three seasons, and two years of probation. The school also imposed a ,000 fine, but the NCAA found the self-imposed sanctions to be not enough.
So, now UNC will be ineligible for this season's ACC championship as well as prevented from attending a bowl game, should it have the necessary number of wins. Welcome to North Carolina, Larry Fedora and staff!
For events that occurred three and four seasons ago, current staff and players now take the hit. In 2010, 14 players were forced to miss at least one game as a penalty for being involved in these violations. Seven players missed the entire 2010 season and four of those players were either dismissed from the team or ruled permanently ineligible by the NCAA. Among the 14 players were Robert Quinn, Marvin Austin, and Greg Little. All three were taken in the first two rounds of last year's NFL draft.
It appears that the NCAA will continue to demonstrate its ultimate authority continuing its vise-like death grip on college athletes. Sure, there are some things that shouldn't be allowed to happen, but the NCAA's rules regarding college athletics dwarfs the IRS tax code in size and scope.
As a result, once again we see a group of athletes (and coaches) penalized for something they had nothing to do with. Most of the players and coaches involved in any wrong-doing (according to the NCAA) are gone and are in no way associated with the University of North Carolina anymore. But, until the NCAA, like the IRS, figures out why it exists, the 2012 edition of UNC football must pay the price.
Gestapo-Like NCAA Weighs Down on North Carolina Football
The author is a veteran college and high school football coach who now operates the http://football-freak.com website. The site offers insight, analysis, and coaching tips on a variety of topics and is geared toward the youth, junior high, high school, and foreign coach. Go to http://football-freak.com to sign up for the monthly newsletter and become a member today.
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