Nightly Update Day 70

UNC Scandal40

Wow! We started this new nightly update thing just at the right time.  Tonight’s entry will not be as linear and organized as normal because I am pressed for time and the news is still developing and hard to analyze. 

Obviously tonight’s update deals with the NCAA issuing suspensions – Burney getting 6 games and Williams getting 4.

Before going any further, realize that these penalties are only for the “agent prong” of the scandals and that the NCAA investigation is ongoing.

First, some quick observations from the text of that linked article:

Burney, who received $1,333 in benefits, must miss six games and make repayment of $575.19 to a charity of his choice. Williams, who received $1,426 in benefits, must miss four games and make repayment of $450.67 to a charity of his choice.

Obviously there is something going on here — Burney received less “benefits” but has to sit out 2 more games than Williams?  Perhaps this discrepancy can be explained by this quote: 

According to the facts of the case submitted by the university, these benefits in part included trips to California, Atlanta and Las Vegas for Burney and two trips to California for Williams. The majority of the benefits Burney received were from an individual who meets the NCAA definition of an agent. According to NCAA rules, an agent is any individual who markets or promotes a student-athlete. The majority of Williams’ benefits were preferential treatment violations associated with visiting a former North Carolina football student-athlete.

I don’t want to split hairs and get off on a tangent, but how do you take those three trips Burney took for anything close to $1333?  Anyway, I think we can read between the lines here and add some names.  Everything points to the conclusion that Burney’s benefits were received from Chris Hawkins (as we have illustrated in several recent entries).  Twitter buzz tonight indicates that Williams’ benefits were received from former UNC-CH player Omar Brown, whom Williams and Burney visited in California — unrelated to Marvin and Cam’s ’09 California trip by the way.  Omar Brown’s seems to be a new name in this thing.  I wonder what kind of role he played in the UNC football universe under Butch!  I am sure more will develop on that.

Interestingly:

“We plan to appeal the length of the suspensions,” says Dick Baddour, North Carolina Director of Athletics. “While I respect the NCAA process, I believe the penalties to be unduly harsh given the individual circumstances in these cases.”

What do we read into that?  Is everything just appealed as a matter of course or does Baddour see something he does not like? I have no idea!

Twitter is just going crazy tonight on this story — we encourage you to follow us on Twitter at times like this when the information curve makes writing a summation almost impossible.  For example, this just popped up:

RT @ACCSports Interesting, spokeswoman said NCAA has ruled on all reinstatement requests made by UNC so far.

Other than the two ruled on today, the other UNC players thought to be involved in the agent prong of the UNC scandal are Austin, Little, Quinn, Brown, and McAdoo.

So what do we make of this action today?  Well, it looks to be getting more complicated in that it appears the “agent” prong of the scandals has split into two sub-prongs: the “Blake-Wichard-Austin” sub-prong and the “Hawkins-Brown” sub-prong.  It would seem that the NCAA has dealt with the Hawkins-Brown prong today and the Blake-Wichard-Austin sub-prong is outstanding.  From the outside, the Blake-Wichard-Austin sub-prong looks much more complicated and serious.  Because they were not ruled on today, can we surmise that Austin, Little, Quinn, Brown, and McAdoo are all involved in the Blake-Wichard-Austin sub-prong?  I would think that would be bad news for UNC were that the case.

ESPN’s Heather Dinich has a piece up tonight and then says this in her blog:

Two quick thoughts on this:

  • It’s not over. North Carolina was missing 12 players last weekend against Georgia Tech, not two, so there are still a lot of unresolved issues.
  • Trips to California, Atlanta and Las Vegas? Really? What were they thinking? And nobody knew about it? I’d be surprised if Burney and Williams are the only ones who will be held accountable when this is finally over.

Also today, Blake met with the North Carolina Secretary of State.  No details from the questioning, obviously, but this amusing quote from the linked article:

Blake has been under scrutiny because of his long-standing ties to high-profile sports agent Gary Wichard. Documents say the two worked together earlier this decade when Blake was out of coaching. About a dozen players coached by Blake have signed with Wichard over the years.

Smith has declined to comment on whether Blake received money from Wichard while coaching, calling that a “complicated” question.

Yeah, I always have found simple, one sentence questions with a yes-no answer “complicated.”

LOTS more to come on this, obviously.  We will try to stay on top of things with news and analysis.

UNC Scandal

40 Responses to Nightly Update Day 70

  1. PacknSack 09/23/2010 at 10:34 AM #

    Apparently “cooperate fully” didn’t include abiding by the NCAA penalties handed out and moving on. The fact they immediately groused about the length of the suspensions and are appealing tells me they 1) are still completely arrogant about this and think what happened is minor and 2) are trying to head the NCAA off at the pass, if you will, because penalties will only escalate from here and they are trying to lower the ground floor.

  2. wolfpacktexx 09/23/2010 at 10:34 AM #

    Dick Baddour will be on the Dave Glenn Show on Thursday.
    Two peas in a pod…. I would not call it must listen radio.

    Do not count on softball Glenn to ask Dick any questions regarding his poor judment to publicly reference an appeal involving a student athlete associated with Chris (model Citizen) Hawkins… Or mentioning John Blake’s involvement in their tangled web…

    Or on Dick’s watch all the mess has come out.

  3. Lunatic Fringe 09/23/2010 at 11:10 AM #

    First, I really like the amounts that are required to be paid to charity.

    $575.19…really? 19 cents.

    Is the 19 cents supposed to make it look more official? How about we round up to the nearest dollar since it is going to charity anyway.

    Second, Baddour keeps saying he wants this resolved asap. Ironic that some the delays are from UNCs delinquents, ie Hawkins, who were refusing to meet with NCAA.

    It was nice of Hawkins to make time for that local radio station morning show though.

  4. ppack3 09/23/2010 at 11:16 AM #

    To all of the people who don’t understand the reasoning behind the NCAA penalties: They don’t care if you, or anyone else, understand what they do or why they do it. We don’t know what has happened behind closed doors. If they caught someone in a lie, and are being harsh with a penalty because of that fact, the player might not know about that, Baddour might not even know, yet, about that. We MAY get a glimpse at what truly happened when the full NCAA report comes out.

    It’s like the NCAA getting pictures of the Bruce Pearl recruit. they had those pictures in hand, of a recruit eating dinner in his house, when the gave him the opportunity NOT to lie to them! He lied about them. Only then did they say, “But, we have pictures right here, Bruce.” Busted. It reminds me of my parents.

    Obviously, the Investigators don’t tip their hand. Take that into consideration when Baddour says that he doesn’t understand why the penalties vary in severity. He probably won’t understand why the University receives sanction after all of this, either. After all, they told the players not to cheat.

  5. Prowling Woofie 09/23/2010 at 11:28 AM #

    I think this scenario is definitely the ‘lesser of two weasels’…

    The prong involving Stahvin’ Mahvin, Punk Little, Quinn and the others will have harsher repercussions, longer suspensions.

    Then they’ll deal with the institutional issues, like tutorgate and scholarship reductions, bowl bans, etc.

    This is ‘only a flesh wound’, guys – it will get worse !

  6. ADVENTUROO 09/23/2010 at 1:00 PM #

    It took me quite a while to read all the stuff that the N&O had about the UNX “Situation”. When you get articles of that length on the front page, the op-ed page, the sports page, etc., it AIN’T good.

    What was interesting, in case you missed it, the Faculty Chair of the UNX Faculty said that they were NOT going to “play this out in the media”. She did NOT tip her hand, but obviously the goings on BEHIND closed doors in Light Blue Smurf Land does NOT bode well.

    Given the things that I read about Ms. Little (I think that is her name….the lady from the Law School (Lissa Bromme) and Jack Evans are not, according to some of the functionally illerate posters (who also purport to be UNX Students and/or UNX Graduates) Officers and/or Memebers of the Butch Davis Fan Club. THEY (the posters….keep up with the thought) are REALLY afraid that Ms. Bromme and Mr. Evans will go out of their way (perhaps holding wine and cheese meetings) to THOROUGHLY TRASH the high academic philosopshies of “Coach”.

    Therefore, perhaps the faculty are standing “BEHIND” Ch. Thorp and are going to make sure that THEY express their displeasure.

    This would be contrary to the “Slash and Burn” PR efforts of OUR faculty during the Valvano Witch Hunt era (cira 1989).

    So, let’s let this play out.

    ALSO….

    Have you noted (the IC Crowd is NOW waking up to this) that the NCAA has said that Marcell Darius (sp?) received $$ from a Sports Agent? One astute IC Poster said…” We need to tread carefully here. We may find out that the identity of Darius’ “AGENT” will be EXTREMELY Detrimental to our casue…”

    AHHHH….the beat goes on….and Cher does NOT look bad at all….even my lovely bride, who is the same age, commented on well preserved body….

  7. Phang 09/23/2010 at 1:07 PM #

    I’m posting this just because I knew this and you probably didn’t…

    Did you know that John Swofford’s brother was a famous pop singer in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s?

  8. Oldwolf 09/23/2010 at 1:40 PM #

    Good Morning Starshine 🙂

  9. Phang 09/23/2010 at 1:42 PM #

    Boy, you are OLDwolf aren’t you? Don’t worry, I remember that and “Jean” playing on the AM radio.

  10. ADVENTUROO 09/23/2010 at 1:48 PM #

    HEADS UP….INCOMING BOMBSHELL.

    Check out the N&O or WRAL. Ch. Thorp and Dickie Baddour told the BOT THIS (Thursday) morning that they did NOT renew the Tutor’s contract in the SUMMER OF 2009 because SHE was “too friendly” with her “student”. SHE was BOTH a Mentor and Tutor and the relationship was to be PROFESSIONAL and that meant NO personal contact OUTSIDE the Ivy Covered Academic Support Center (I’m picuturing a giant Nike Jock Strap shaped building with ivy growing up…).

    SO, UNX did NOT renew her contract. They apparently did NOT feel the need to “investigate”. Had they investigated, I’ll bet that the NCAA would be a HECK OF A LOT more lenient on them than they will be now.

    OHHHHHHHH…….this just gets better….

  11. ppack3 09/23/2010 at 2:12 PM #

    ^ If true, that would explain Baddour’s relunctance to answer any questions about the Tutor’s dismissal, neither the timing nor the cause…because it is part of the investigation!

    Doh!

  12. newt 09/23/2010 at 2:14 PM #

    Here’s my less-complicated take on this. Blake has a questionable reputation. He helped get players to sign with UNC, helped them stay in school academically, helped them enjoy their time at school, helped them want to return to school, and helped make sure they were rewarded upon leaving school. In doing these things, he may have circumvented the rules that govern college athletics, from recruiting through departure to professional athletics.

    Why would anybody think that unethical behavior by Blake would be limited to one or two classes, rather than EVERYBODY that Blake recruited to UNC.

    The only way to make sure that UNC football is completely clean is to 1 – get rid of Blake (check) and 2 – remove the players that he brought-in from the program. There is not time, resources, or authority to investigate each individual player on a case-by-case basis. Basically the only way to ensure the program is clean is to shut it down and start over.

    You also have to hold the Chancellor, Athletics Director, and Head Coach accountable for hiring Blake knowing his history, and for not having adequate controls in place to identify and mitigate the problems that are alleged to have occurred.

    Instead what has happened is Blake has left, so that the NCAA has no authority to question him. The SoS has authority to question him, but is not motivated to learn what Blake might have done to enable recruiting at UNC.

    So the outcome is that UNC will sacrifice most of the current class of defensive seniors on the altar of “agentgate.” They would have been gone next year anyway. And they will move forward with the next line of Blake players with medium success. This “scandal” will become an entry on carolinasucks.com.

  13. coach13 09/23/2010 at 2:31 PM #

    My ultimate hope is eventually b4 the year is up it becomes clear Butch is gone. He is killing us this year in state recruiting. Hope to see a bunch of those names reconsidering.

  14. Prowling Woofie 09/23/2010 at 3:30 PM #

    ^coach13 – I wonder how many of this year’s recruits are/were expecting ‘presents’ from Black Santa ? If that’s why they verballed to UNC, I’m not sure we want to pick them up, are you ?

    I’d rather Tom get those guys that want to be Champions in the Classroom and Champions in the Community before being Champions on the Field.

  15. NCStatePride 09/23/2010 at 5:49 PM #

    At what point in time will Baddour come out and admit that we don’t have just a one or two pronged investigation, but a whole damn fork from Belk’s “Lack of Institutional Control” collection?

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