Things you may have missed today (Day 89)

General UNC Scandal34

A lot happened today, and this entry was updated several times by multiple members of the SFN author team. It covered all of the breaking news as it happened.

Because of all the work put into our main entry today, my entry tonight does not have a lot of analysis — it just points out a few things in “Bytes” style that you may have missed in the avalanche of data.

***  Before the news even started breaking today, the Daily Tar Heel continued its excellent coverage with a piece entitled “A Carolina cover up.”   This particular article involves a report that Thorp requested that a DTH reporter leave an Honor Court meeting to protect the identity of a football player.

***  I have a question about how much things cost.  This WRAL story explains that:

 UNC estimated Little accepted $4,952 in benefits and Quinn accepted $5,642. 

OK, I am with them so far.  But next we learn that:

Little accepted diamond earrings and travel to the Bahamas, Washington, D.C., and Miami, among other benefits, the university said.

So you can really get all that stuff (and more) for $4,952?  I have no idea, but it seems like all that loot would cost a lot.  We also are told that:

Quinn accepted two black diamond watches, a pair of matching earrings and travel to Miami, among other benefits.

Again, $5,642 gets you all that (and more)?  I don’t see how.  Also, how did the coaches not notice Quinn’s two black diamond watches and pair of matching earrings and ask him questions?  Is it normal for UNC-CH football players to walk around with that kind of bling?

***  I want to put a plug in for our message boards as I elevate this excellent post from alert fan “MatSci94″ into this entry:

reaction to various things…

MA went from ‘suspended indefinitely’ for something that was *NOT* agent or academic related, to ‘dismissed from the program’ for Agent involvement..after UNC knew that he recieved $10-13k in extra benefits (by comparison, the NCAA scale mentions $500, $750, and >$1000). Wasn’t he ‘working his way back onto the team?’

UNC seems to be setting up the ‘we had institutional control because we warned players’ BS excuse.

In describing the ‘lying to investigators’ part, apparently the NCAA knew details before they asked players (who continued to lie…) How did the NCAA know what was going on and UNC didn’t?

***  Lastly, today Coach O’Brien was asked about UNC-CH’s “sign out sheet” system of NCAA rules compliace.  The exchange reportedly went like this:

Q: UNC announced today that it is going to implement a program in which football players are going to have sign out, where you’re going, who you are going with, who’s paying, etc… Do you have anything like that?

O’Brien: No we don’t.

Q: Do you plan on it?

O’Brien: I would hope not. 

Hilarious!  Also, what does UNC-CH expect players to do who are on the way improper trips/benefits?  Sign out and say “On the way to Miami on a flight paid for by an agent through Marvin where I will attend an agent party and receive improper benefits”?

General UNC Scandal

34 Responses to Things you may have missed today (Day 89)

  1. haze 10/12/2010 at 7:42 AM #

    TOB’s efficiency was notable… 7 words that make you feel stupid.

    “No, we don’t.”

    “I would hope not.”

  2. ShavlikLeague 10/12/2010 at 9:00 AM #

    Where can I find a copy of that IC football preview issue? I want to have that framed. And make t-shirts. A LOT of t-shirts. So many t-shirts that I’ll have fresh ones to pull out every Christmas, wrap them up with a bow and send them to all of my UNC buddies. And I’ll throw in a trucker’s hat with that pic on the front for all of my UNC fan buddies who didn’t actually go to UNC…

  3. bradleyb123 10/12/2010 at 9:21 AM #

    Also, what does UNC-CH expect players to do who are on the way improper trips/benefits? Sign out and say “On the way to Miami on a flight paid for by an agent through Marvin where I will attend an agent party and receive improper benefits”?

    This smacks of an institution playing the CYA game. Because this is a valid question. If a player is going to do something improper, he is NOT going to inform the coaches. He’s going to write down that he is going to visit his sick grandmother or something.

    This does nothing to prevent wrongs from happening. It does nothing to MONITOR players, either. All it does is give the university the ability to say, “We did all we could. And WE are not guilty. The players were acting on their own.” (If this were to ever happen again…)

    It’s a CYA thing. Plain and simple.

    Sounds like they need a signout sheet for their boosters, too.

  4. Prowling Woofie 10/12/2010 at 9:38 AM #

    The totals assigned to Little, Quinn, and Austin are ludicrous ! No way any of these guys foregoes the NFL Draft last year to come back for these piddling amounts !

    How stupid do the folks at UNC think the rest of us are ?

    There was A LOT MORE cash flowing than a total of $25K on these three guys – ever priced a trip to the Bahamas, a couple to DC, and a couple more to Miami ? Touch base with a travel agent and see what you come up with – and we haven’t even started with the bling…

  5. newt 10/12/2010 at 9:52 AM #

    Mark Thomas asked this a.m. “Is John Blake going to sign out?”

    Things that are bugging me, all heard on the radion today…

    1 – Heaping praise on the eligible (for now) players and coaches who have done it the ‘right way’ and are overcoming adversity to succeed on the field. No. This problem is self-inflicted, and given that Blake was the recruiting coordinator, you have to question if there are still players on that team that were not recruited the right way.

    2 – Saying it’s understandable that these guys took diamond watches and trips to the Bahamas because they come from poor families, and the NCAA and schools are hypocritical because they are making millions off these poor kids. That’s BS. The collegiate sports system makes these kids stars, not the other way around. And besides a car, they have all major expenses covered for them – housing, college, food. College is one of the top two or three expenses in your lifetime and folks act like the scholly doesn’t count for much.

    3 – Saying that UNC can’t talk about the details because the NCAA told them not to. The NCAA said that’s not true, but this myth continues to be reported.

    4 – Laying the accountability on the individual “few players.” This approach conveniently ignores that the Associate Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator is at the center of these activities. The coaching staff made these things happen.

  6. Par Shooter 10/12/2010 at 10:20 AM #

    If you read carefully between the lines I think that unc-ch basically admitted that at least some of the benefits came from boosters. They didn’t come right out and say it but once that is revealed (and it will be) then one could go back to their statements and parse them such that they never denied booster gifts. It is also very interesting that the N&O seems to know (or at least suspect) that the gifts came from folks other than agents based on their questions and putting “agents” in quotes for the 1A headline. I’m sure Andrew Curliss is working hard to establish that some of the gifts came from boosters and further enhance his rep that carries over from all of the Easley reporting. If I had a lot to hide I’m not sure I’d want that guy poking around – he could be their worse nightmare.

  7. Wufpacker 10/12/2010 at 10:28 AM #

    “All it does is give the university the ability to say, “We did all we could. And WE are not guilty. The players were acting on their own.””

    They can say that if they want, but that sign out sheet is not going to get them off the hook for one damn thing, either now or if it were to happen again in the future. ESPECIALLY if it were to happen again in the future. You wanna talk death penalty? Let them use that sign out sheet as their only control once this current mess is over and done. If it ever happens again and that sign out sheet is it you’ll see a death penalty, alright.

    That sign out sheet is nothing more than smoke they’re blowing hoping that MOST of the public says “See, they’re trying”.

    The NCAA is not stupid. Nor are they inexperienced at this. That sign out sheet does UNC about as much good as lying and saying they can’t talk about the investigation. The NCAA does NOT care about that sign out sheet and it will NOT win Carolina any favor with them when sanctions get handed down.

  8. YogiNC 10/12/2010 at 10:29 AM #

    I just figured out a way to make EVERYONE start talking and to do it under OATH. Two words, RICO ACT. Since the agents gave money & benefits illegally to students they violated the Uniform Athlete Agents Act. That is step one. To get everyone talking subpoena all of them. Put them under oath. Then make them understand the implications of perjury. At this point it could be said that the agents also were involved with enterprise corruption. Also since this has amounted to more than one count (two counts of criminal activity is all that is necessary) bring in the RICO statue. If that doesn’t make that bunch start singing then charge them with obstruction, and include them in the RICO charges. We’re talking FEDERAL time. No NFL, No lucrative contract, playing for a penal league team.

  9. whitey1 10/12/2010 at 12:39 PM #

    So it is up to 5 players that have been confirmed to receive benefits… How many does a lack of control constitute?

1 2

Leave a Reply