We’ve got ‘breaking news’ out of Virginia tonight where high school football player and UNC-CH commitment, Tim Scott, says that North Carolina Head Football Coach Butch Davis told him that the current NCAA investigation will not impact UNC’s future bowl eligibility…as well as a whole lot more.
Hat tip to WRAL: UNC recruit says Davis told him no loss of bowls
UNC’s most recent football recruit may have peeled the curtain back a bit regarding the Tar Heels’ trouble with the NCAA.
Upon committing to Carolina, cornerback Tim Scott tells the Fredericksburg (Va) Freelance Star that Butch Davis assured him the NCAA investigation will not affect UNC’s bowl eligibility.
“He said the players just have to pay back what they received,” Scott said. “They said it shouldn’t affect future recruits.”
The question now is whether Davis was merely offering his opinion, or if he was speaking from a position of knowledge — and there’s always the possibility of this amounting to a “recruiting promise.” But regardless, it’s an interesting quote from a recruit.
Like we did in this popular entry on Friday, let’s just approach some obvious questions this information generates:
First, does Butch Davis know for sure that UNC’s program is not going to be negatively impacted by the NCAA investigation?
If so, why can Coach Davis and UNC tell a 17 year old high school student things that they won’t share with the rest of the world?
Over the last two weeks Coach Davis and the entire athletics administration at UNC-CH have refused to speak to the press or answer any questions on the item until Davis’ previously scheduled appearance at the local Pigskin event on Thursday where he said basically nothing.
The University was even were caught in a half-truth (many call it a lie) on the issue when the News & Observer took the time to receive a statement from the NCAA that directly contradicted the lying position the University had been publicly spinning. In this entry we shared:
There are an increasing number of voices speaking with insight and intelligence about the subversive role and influence of agents, many from schools currently under investigation. None of them is coming from Chapel Hill. So far, Little’s father has said more about the probe than anyone at the university.
“I don’t know what Coach Spurrier and Coach Saban were told. … They may be under different circumstances, different directives, they may have had different people from the NCAA talking to them,†Kirschner said. “I don’t know. I do know what we were told, and I know what direction the NCAA gave us.â€
In an e-mail, NCAA associate director for public and media relations Stacey Osburn wrote, “The NCAA does not prohibit the schools under investigation to comment to the media, however, they are advised not to make any public comment that could hamper the investigation.â€
Anyone notice the difference in Kirschner’s explanation of UNC’s silence and the actual email from the NCAA’s Stacey Osburn? Kirschner says they aren’t talking per the request of the NCAA, yet the NCAA told Decock that anyone can talk as long as they don’t hamper the investigation.
Is Kirschner confused? Or is he purposely being dishonest? It may be in the best interests of UNC to have remained silent, so why not just state that it is UNC’s policy not to discuss these matters until they reach some sort of resolution?
Easily the most important news and questions that evolve from Scott’s comments would be that if Davis said, ‘the players just have to pay back what they received’ then the UNC-CH coach would appear to be admitting that (1) multiple players (2) received improper and illegal benefits.
WOW!! Multiple players receiving major illegal payments and benefits from sports agents! and, no major penalties to follow? only pay back the money?
This obviously opens up quite a pandora’s box of questions from any NC State University supporter older than (approximately) 35 years old.
In the late 1980s, it was supposedly proven that NC State had a few basketball players ‘illegally’ generate income that probably totaled a few thousand dollars from selling some of their sneakers and free tickets to basketball games. For this ‘major violation’ the University lost its exceptionally popular basketball coach, Athletics Director and Chancellor on our way to NCAA probation despite an unprecedented letter written voluntarily by the head of the NCAA’s investigation exonerating and praising Head Basketball Coach, Jim Valvano.
Yet now…the University of North Carolina could have multiple players accept major gifts and cash from illicit sources that could total over a hundred thousand dollars and the only penalties and discipline will be that the money will get paid back. And, please note that the only money that will get paid back is the money that can be been proven. Imagine how much is out there that will never be proven?
Makes total sense to me. Unfortunately.
One last quick question — if these kids didn’t initially have the money needed to take these trips and buy these gifts…then, how in the world are they going to simply ‘pay it back’? Seriously. If they didn’t have the money to begin with, where are they going to get it now to ‘pay it back’? Maybe some of those nice, supportive UNC-CH alums can find a way to step up and help like they apparently did for Wayne Ellington while he was helping Carolina win ACC and National Basketball Championships.
2:20pm Sunday afternoon
Imagine this…we’ve got yet another flip-flop in a story related to the UNC-CH’s agentgate?!
The N&O has a follow-up on this story that you can read here.
Tim Scott, a cornerback from Stafford, Va., said he was told by assistant coach Charlie Williams that UNC’s bowl status would not be affected by the NCAA investigation.
Scott, reached by phone on Sunday afternoon, said Williams also talked to him about the punishment for the players involved in the NCAA investigation. He clarified a Virginia newspaper report from Saturday that attributed the quotes to head coach Butch Davis.
“Coach Williams said the players involved would have to pay back what they received and it wouldn’t be an issue for future recruits,” Scott said. “I didn’t talk to coach Davis about the NCAA investigation.”
Williams is UNC’s receivers coach in his fourth season. He previously coached with Davis at Miami and also in the NFL.
