Ramsay’s lawyer: “We’re convinced that Devon has not committed any violation”

UNC Scandal15

Today the N & O reported some statements made by Ramsay’s lawyer, specifically:

“We’re convinced that Devon has not committed any violation,” said former N.C. Supreme Court justice Robert Orr, who represents Ramsay.

and

“What we’ve had to do is back away from that penalty phase and try to address everything surrounding the violation question,” Orr said.

We covered this last night to a certain extent.  The Ramsay case is particularly interesting to me because he played the first four games this year before being ruled permanently ineligible by the NCAA, and because his mother talked to the N & O about the specifics of his case back in November.
So what is it that Ramsay allegedly did that UNC does not consider to be a violation? This was covered in detail in this space last December.  If you want to read the specifics, read our December article and/or the N & O piece linked above. Basically, according to the News and Observer, in a three-page Sociology 111 paper, a tutor rewrote Ramsay’s introduction and completely wrote his conclusion, rewrote parts of six other sentences (changing words and phrases), corrected ten punctuation/capitalization errors, corrected the verb tenses in four sentences, and rewrote eight sentences into sixteen.  In a three-page paper, that sounds like a hell of a lot of work done by the tutor rather than the student.  It sounds like a total rewrite.
But this is supposedly not a violation?  That appears to be UNC’s story.  After all, apparently UNC and UNC’s honor court found nothing whatsover — and let him play without missing any game time at all.  Somehow the NCAA looked at the same facts and found him to be permanently ineligible.  If you are keeping score, that makes five so far — Ramsay along with Marvin, Little, McAdoo, and Quinn.
Stay tuned.
UNC Scandal

15 Responses to Ramsay’s lawyer: “We’re convinced that Devon has not committed any violation”

  1. hoop 02/10/2011 at 7:30 PM #

    Somebody somewhere knows much more about this situation and they ain’t sayin nuthin. I ain’t sayin what, I’m just sayin.

  2. VaWolf82 02/10/2011 at 7:35 PM #

    So, UNC decided that he committed a violation and suspended him.

    The case was referred to the NCAA and they were asked to reinstate Ramsay. The NCAA agreed that a violation occurred and ruled Ramsay permanently ineligible.

    NOW…UNC’s lawyer is claiming that EVERYONE was wrong and no violation occurred. Yea….I see that line of argument going over real well.

  3. backnine 02/10/2011 at 7:56 PM #

    This attorney is a former NC Supreme Court Justice and he’s trying to sell the notion that none of Ramsay’s occurences were a violation of being a STUDENT athlete where doing your own work is the expectation? Really? What does that say about this guy’s ethical compass? And to think he sat on the top court in our state and intrepreted the law. It doesn’t take a law degree to see that the tutor did way more for Ramsay on this assignment than should have been provided. But I guess it does take a law degree and a supreme court pedigree to convince others that what’s right before their eyes isn’t really there. Kind of like Clinton…depends on what your definition of “is” is.

  4. triadwolf 02/10/2011 at 8:01 PM #

    So has any other program ever had 5 players ruled permanently ineligible and not end up with NCAA sanctions?

  5. Hungwolf 02/10/2011 at 8:18 PM #

    Ever seen a NCAA investigation where the school and just about everyone seems to have an attorney? How can Ramsey afford such a high profile attorney? Wonder if the NCAA would be more forthright with info if Ramsay didn’t have an attorney?

    off topic, you see Thorton’s stupid tweeter about Duke students? You’d think after the football players’ stupid tweets, he would know better! Apple don’t fall far from the tree!

  6. Hamlet 02/10/2011 at 8:45 PM #

    According to NCSU (and I believe, NCAA) regulations regarding student athletes and academic assistance, a tutor cannot write ANY part of a student’s paper. Believe me, I know. I worked with NCSU athletes (mostly during TOB’s first two seasons and Lowe’s second and third seasons), and the rules were VERY clear. The only thing a tutor can do is correct simple grammatical errors (punctuation, spelling), but in no way could they write or even suggest anything regarding content.

    For instance, saying “That sounds awkward and needs to be reworded” would be permissible. Making the corrections yourself or even telling the student that he/she should write ‘x’ and ‘y’ and ‘z’ is not tolerated and will result in dismissal and possible suspension of athlete. The Florida State fiasco a few years ago put a scare into everyone and caused all departments to clamp down. Evidently, UNC didn’t get the memo or chose to ignore it. At NCSU, this is not only made crystal clear to everyone – tutors, academic coordinators, and athletes alike, but strongly enforced.

  7. novawolf 02/10/2011 at 9:09 PM #

    For each incident where UNC has jurisdiction, the student gets the minimum. For each incident where the NCAA has jurisdiction, the student gets permanent ineligibility. For each ruling made by the NCAA, UNC appeals. For each appeal, the NCAA denies. Protests by Baddour have fallen on deaf ears. And final authority rests with the NCAA.

  8. El Scrotcho 02/10/2011 at 9:56 PM #

    UNC’s hubris throughout this fiasco cannot help the final sanctions. With so few precedents for the pervasive issues they’ve had, the NCAA could ultimately be extremely harsh or extremely lenient. They appear to be doing very little to steer them toward leniency.

  9. wufpup76 02/11/2011 at 2:52 AM #

    “And to think he sat on the top court in our state and intrepreted the law”

    ^I for one am shocked because no one in a position of authority in the state of North Carolina has ever been found to be corrupt before or much less lose their ethical compass. No one.

    And the mustang with the Hole logo gets me everytime.

  10. PackerInRussia 02/11/2011 at 6:39 AM #

    “We’re convinced that Devon has not committed any violation,” said former N.C. Supreme Court justice Robert Orr, who represents Ramsay.

    And therein lies the great disconnect as wide as the Grand Canyon. No one on the UNC side sees the violations, but the NCAA’s opinion is the only one that matters and they see it quite differently. As I said on the other post, why would recruits believe UNC’s opinion on how the NCAA will rule when they don’t even disagree with how the NCAA has ruled so far! The nuts think they run the asylum, but it’s all just in their heads (which makes them even bigger nuts).

  11. bradleyb123 02/11/2011 at 7:42 AM #

    And they wonder why we say an independent investigation was needed.

    If this is how they handle broken rules, how can they be trusted to investigate themselves?

  12. foz 02/11/2011 at 10:29 AM #

    This looks just like the Duke hand checking philosophy – do it constantly, and the refs can’t possibly call them all.

    Except here, it’s always cheat, deny and appeal everything – the NCAA can’t possibly deny all of the appeals.

  13. packalum44 02/11/2011 at 4:12 PM #

    Isn’t it comical that UNC is fighting its hardest for the least valuable player of all the indicted? Is it really worth all the negative PR for a role player?

    I mean, is the retired Supreme Court Justice not embarrassed to take on this case because I mean hell, I’m embarrassed for him. Oh wait, UNC alumni don’t feel feelings other than entitlement.

  14. Wolf74 02/11/2011 at 7:37 PM #

    My question is, DO ANY OF THE STUDENTS AT UNC-CHeats DO THEIR OWN WORK? Or do they all have files of past tests, and papers, and access to cheap tutors? I’d say the second. That is probably the most lax academic school in the ACC and all the students accept it and profit from it.

  15. Rochester 02/11/2011 at 8:41 PM #

    Ramsay: Frys an all what u wnat

    UNC Tutor: You mean, “You want fries with that?”

    NCAA: We’ll let this one go. He’s going to need to know that phrase.

Leave a Reply