UNC Scandal Blowing Up

ACC & Other General UNC Scandal38

I hear nothing, I see nothing, I know nothing!

Several stories breaking tonight on the UNC scandal:

Larger article in today’s N&O.

Full article.

The University of North Carolina has sent a disassociation letter severing ties with Jennifer Wiley, the former tutor associated with the school and NCAA’s investigation into possible academic misconduct within the Tar Heels football program.

In the letter, dated Nov. 5 and signed by athletic director Dick Baddour, states that Wiley provided impermissible academic assistance to some of the school’s student-athletes in 2009 and 2010.

The letter also states that Wiley provided impermissible financial assistance in excess of $2,000 in connection with travel and transportation issues. The university released the letters to the media this afternoon as the result of public records requests.

Keep in mind that Ms. Wiley is the same tutor that was deemed to have an inappropriate relationship with at least 1 UNC football player. Due to that relationship, UNC made the decision to not continue her contract back in 2009. Yet despite this inappropriate relationship, Butch Davis continued to employ Ms. Wiley up until the Spring of 2010 and neither Butch nor any official at UNC thought it made sense to determine if her employment was appropriate. At the time UNC discontinued Ms. Wiley’s participation in the tutor program for an inappropriate relationship, nobody at UNC investigated the work done by UNC student-athletes to determine whether the inappropriate relationship between Ms. Wiley and at least 1 UNC football player led to the academic fraud which is now at the center of second prong of the ongoing investigation.

This is NCAA compliance at its best.

I guess I can understand a university not catching everything, but considering UNC knew of the improper relationship it is almost as if they simply ignored the potential of academic fraud which is the whole point of setting boundaries on relationships between tutors and student-athletes in the first place. If there is no need for an investigation, then why discontinue her participation in the tutor program? Then nobody at UNC informs Butch that Ms. Wiley was let go, why she was let go, or that it isn’t a good idea for him to continue employing her.

Hello? Anybody home in UNC’s compliance department?

Additionally:

Reinstatement requests sent by the university to the NCAA indicate that impermissible gifts, including cash, jewelry and travel and entertainment expenses were provided to football players by:
Former UNC player Hakeem Nicks ($3,300).
Former UNC player Omar Brown ($1,865).
Former UNC player Mahlon Carey ($140).
Vernon Davis ($20).
A person from Miami whose full name is not known to the university

Another former player mentioned giving thousands of dollars worth of benefits to at least 1 current UNC player. Anyone surprised?

Why go to any other university when you can go to UNC, get hooked up with thousands of dollars worth of benefits, travel around the country, commit academic fraud and stay in school and play in the current season(or redshirt if it is your’s or the program’s best interest) even if you get caught?

That is a heck of a recruiting pitch. The Carolina Way!!!

Here is the official document from UNC detailing this latest release of information.

ACC & Other General UNC Scandal

38 Responses to UNC Scandal Blowing Up

  1. tmb81 11/12/2010 at 11:19 AM #

    Keep the drums beating… I’m concerned about this being eclipsed by the Can Newton controversy and becoming a “local story”. In fact the other night on the ESPN2 MAC game one of the announcers, JC Pearson, said Butch Davis deserves “coach of the year” honors for handling all this “adversity”.

  2. Mike 11/12/2010 at 12:04 PM #

    I posted this over at WRAL also.

    A teacher, making only $30K a year, forks out over $2000 on her personal CC to players for travel? Do the math folks – she makes less than $3K per month gross, so take home is around $2K per month. So she spent about a month of her income on trips for these guys? Do you not see anything wrong with this picture?

    When I travel for work, I dont want to put my travel costs on my personal CC. I would much rather use the company card. Even though I get reimbursed, I still have the write the check to pay the bill. And if I dont pay my CC off every month, I am being charged interest on those charges, so technically I would not be getting reimbursed equally for my trips.

    Last point – if a good friend came to me and said he really needed funds to travel to visit his dying mother, I would find a way to advance him the money or even pay for the trip. If that same guy came to me and said he needed $2K to travel to a party in Vegas or Miami? Get real.

    The ONLY plausible connection is not only was she reimbursed, she was fronted money AND funneled money to funnel to the players.

  3. wolfbuff 11/12/2010 at 12:19 PM #

    I was thinking the same thing about the money, Mike. Was she even a teacher at that time or a student/tutor? If she was still only a student, that makes the red flag even redder. That combined with the fact that she has a high-powered attorney lead me to believe that she was funneling money is the most plausible story here. It will eventually come out.

  4. BigRed 11/12/2010 at 12:27 PM #

    If the tutor was providing benefits to the players, couldn’t she be ruled to be acting as an agent? There are parallels in the Hawkins ruling. Would she have to be seen as providing benefits to entice the players to sign professionally, or is providing benefits for any reason enough to trigger this ruling?

    If she were ruled an agent, the SoS investigation could subpoena her testimony, finally opening up this prong of the investigation.

  5. choppack1 11/12/2010 at 12:34 PM #

    BigRed – she’d actually be more likely to be acting as a booster. She was certainly affiliated w/ the university as a tutor.

  6. BigRed 11/12/2010 at 12:51 PM #

    ChopPack – Agree, but what is the technical definition of an agent that was used to classify Hawkins? Is it just the transfer of benefits, or is there some aspect of intent? If it’s just the benefits, she might qualify. And if the benefits were transferred after her affiliation with the university ended, then she might qualify in any case.

  7. choppack1 11/12/2010 at 1:27 PM #

    Big Red: Hawkins is actually both (a booster AND an agent.) The tutor, Omar Brown, and Hakeem Nicks are “boosters”:

    The NCAA defines an agent as “any individual who markets or promotes a student-athlete.”

    The NCAA defines a Booster as : “Representatives of the institution’s athletic interests” “been involved otherwise in promoting athletics (including all season ticket holders)”…”Assisted in providing benefits to enrolled student-athletes of their families.””participated as a varsity athlete at the” institution

  8. highstick 11/12/2010 at 1:49 PM #

    She’s hired a defense attorney….meaning they are going to charge her with something? Or has she hired an attorney cause they are gonna throw her totally under the bus to cover their rotten backsides and she’ll let them as long as they pay her a huge settlement(that is not disclosed to the public)…

    She may need a financial adviser to handle her “new source of income”…

    There has to be “more” out there. And most of all I don’t think the people named so far are smart enough to have covered all of their tracks.

  9. coach13 11/12/2010 at 2:19 PM #

    For the last time, I was listening to Mike and Mark this morning. Mike is a complete ass and needs to be punched. Mark is a dumbass, but at least he makes no bones about it. I despise listening to Mike, and I don’t see how his condescending ass stays on the show.

    He uses extremisms to defend UNC if you call in and talk about them. This morning he went balistic on some caller who was questioning where/how a teacher/tutor could afford $2K, and suggested she may have been reimbursed or was passing money along. THEN that prick Mike goes on some grassy knowl, conspiracy rant and says “well i can make up stuff too”…ignoring the plausability anf practicality of what the caller was saying. I wish someone would kick that dumbass in the nuts with a lead boot. I refuse to listen to those two morons again.

  10. Wolf74 11/12/2010 at 9:08 PM #

    Now let’s count up what this self proclaimed model athletic program has been up to:

    1. UNC-Cheats had a tutor. that just happened to work for the Head Coach, paying players.

    2. UNC-Cheats had alumni paying players.

    3. UNC-Cheats had a Miami jeweler giving jewelry to players.

    4. UNC-Cheats had agents providing trips, money, and gifts to players.

    5. UNC-Cheats had an agent/runner as an Assistant Head Coach.

    6. UNC-Cheats was giving an agent/runner (Hawkings) free run of the team and facilities and he provided impermissible benefits.

    7. UNC-Cheats had a tutor writing papers for players – commonly called academic fraud.

    8. UNC-Cheats has player(s) that elected to attend other institutions of higher learning stating that they were offered money to play football at UNC-Cheats.

    Have I missed anything? The list just keeps growing. And those are just the things we know about – just the tip of the ice berg. And this isn’t even their number 1 sport. Imagine what they’re doing in basketball.

    It appears that the whole athletic department over there is out of control. This goes beyond Lack of Institutional Control. This is just simply a ROGUE PROGRAM.

  11. ADVENTUROO 11/12/2010 at 11:46 PM #

    As much as I would like to think the worst about UNC, and I don’t like them one little bit. BUT, I also respect Joe Cheshire….he is one tough cookie. I don’t like his clients, but I know that when he speaks, it is usually the truth. His statement about Jennifer Wiley, which was in the N&O and the WRAL Article is that one of the players needed to make a $2000 Credit Card charge….air fair, deposit on ear bling, porn stars, whatever. Jennifer allowed the person to use her credit card and had a check to deposit the next morning. The one thing that is not clear, but is implied is that the person wrote her the check, not some booster.

    SO, I will give Ms. Wiley the benefit of the doubt. She seems to be the the current “bad guy” to take heat. UNC’s letter is hilarious….typical BS.

    But, I will lay off Ms. Wiley…until someone comes up with proof to the contrary. I think she was smitten by one of the players and went over the academic line with him and several of his buddies.

    I do NOT see how Coach Davis (AKA Sgt Schultz) can claim he did NOT know. You would think that Ms. Wiley would have told Coach that she was a little hard up these days since DB cut her loose.

    What a fiasco.

  12. packcap 11/13/2010 at 11:00 AM #

    I heard yesterday that the funding of the football project has slowed down tremendously. They are holding onto their money to see if Butch stays. If he does not stay, it is a gut feeling that the money will also not stay. So…..2+2 = a Butch extension.

  13. highstick 11/13/2010 at 3:59 PM #

    Adventuroo…how is what you describe “not money laundering”…at least potentially? Or at least the NCAA equivalent?

    I’d love to see her total story because I think she got pulled into w/o totally understand what she was getting into…

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