N&O: Disgraced Former Trustee Provides Flights To Wolfpack Coaches (Which IS Legal)

AD & Department Debbie Yow NC State NCS Basketball NCS Football16

No doubt, for months, the phones have been ringing off of the hook at the Raleigh News and Observer with UNC fans on the other end of the line frothing off at the mouth about the paper’s recent coverage of their favorite school.  Those fans, after they get through bemoaning the paper’s coverage of the Neverending Story, aka The UNC Scandal, have surely screamed and yelled that surely the same or probably even worse indiscretions happen over in Raleigh.

The N&O looked into things, and here’s the dirt they found:  D. McQueen Campbell III, a former trustee of NC State who resigned in the wake of the Mary Easley scandal, provided six flights to Wolfpack head coaches.  That’s legal, by the way, and is above board.

In other words, the only thing of interest in the story are Campbell’s past indiscretions and his continuing donations to the Wolfpack Club.  Nothing more.  No improper benefits were given to coaches or players, no grades were given for classes not attended, no eleven year olds were plagiarized, and no systemic coverups or baldfaced lies were told by university officials when asked about the six flights that McQueen provided.  From the looks of it, the N&O went on a fishing expedition looking for trouble and went to print with all that they had, which was 1,514 words about nothing.

Read for yourself:

Figure In NCSU Scandal Now Provides Flights To Coaches

D. McQueen Campbell III, who resigned from the N.C. State University Board of Trustees in disgrace, has found a second act at the university and is again rubbing shoulders with prominent NCSU leaders, this time as an aerial chauffeur for the university’s top coaches.

When he was last in the public eye, the Raleigh real estate broker was testifying at a 2009 state Board of Elections hearing into alleged campaign law violations by former Gov. Mike Easley. In a plea arrangement, Easley was convicted of a felony tied to violating six state campaign finance laws. The violations were all related to a $1,600 helicopter flight Campbell provided him.

So where we the coaches going?
Three of the flights with Gottfried were for recruiting in Maryland and Charlotte, and the others were to Charlotte for a meeting with ESPN officials and to South Carolina for a coaches’ cancer charity event. O’Brien was flown to South Carolina to watch the Shrine Bowl and for recruiting.

And were they on the up-and-up, meaning did Campbell go around university officials or the Wolfpack Club?  No, actually, he provided the service as a donation-in-kind for his Wolfpack Club dues, which is not only legal in the eyes of the law and the NCAA, it is also common.

The Campbell family claimed $28,556 for the flights in credit as gifts-in-kind to the booster organization. It’s unclear how much of that was credited specifically to McQueen Campbell.

NCSU Athletic Director Debbie Yow wrote in an email statement that she knew Campbell was giving rides to coaches.

“I am aware that a handful of donors to the Student Aid Association (Wolfpack Club) are willing to provide business-related flight service to our men’s basketball or football coach in lieu of their monetary contributions in a given year, if the planes are available,” she wrote. “I understand that Mr. Campbell is one of those individuals.”

Compared the other shenanigans at other local schools of late: fishy five-figure loans to ostensibly unemployed basketball players for jewelry, academic fraud, players living the high life on South Beach thanks to sports agents’ generosity, etc. etc., this is indeed a story about nothing and is of little interest to anyone except for those who are desperate to pin something, anything, on the school that’s not their rival.
AD & Department Debbie Yow NC State NCS Basketball NCS Football

16 Responses to N&O: Disgraced Former Trustee Provides Flights To Wolfpack Coaches (Which IS Legal)

  1. tjfoose1 11/08/2012 at 9:55 PM #

    So what’s the point of this post? The NC State story is getting out.

  2. STLPack01 11/08/2012 at 9:59 PM #

    well they have to report something to keep it fair and balanced…

  3. lush 11/08/2012 at 10:36 PM #

    My father in law used his plane to fly unc football coaches on recruiting trips for the last 20 years. Not only is it not a violation, it is a very common form of donation.

    This is a ridiculous attempt at slinging dirt.

  4. Wufpacker 11/08/2012 at 10:38 PM #

    Hey cool….I’m glad our coverup worked at least 😉

  5. howlie 11/08/2012 at 11:38 PM #

    The attempt at the soiling of the red diaper before the blew dirty laundry is thrown out.

    We get it.

    Now come on with the blew news for which we’ve been awaiting. Come on with it…

  6. sequoyah 11/09/2012 at 4:53 AM #

    ‘Dog bites man’ journalism just like we’ve seen before. They must’ve re-read their College Inn non-story for inspiration.

    Watch the N&O over the coming weeks & months – they will be trying to stoke hits as their paywall goes up.

  7. tuckerdorm1983 11/09/2012 at 6:42 AM #

    I saw the headline and thought (Oh Sh@t) and then I read the story and said “Well there is a hot dog bun, but no weenie”. I guess you are going to have to give it to the N and O. They have probably written upwards of 100 articles on the scandal at UNC. Someone finally said “see if you can’t dig up some dirt on Duke or NCST”. If this is all they could come up with, then I am quite pleased. What next “Coach K’s dog takes a dump on UNC chancellors lawn and K won’t pick up the poop and put it in a bag”. I can see the headline now “Duke Coach trespass on UNC and defile UNC property”.

  8. Texpack 11/09/2012 at 6:52 AM #

    This just shows how unsophisticated NC State is when it comes to cheating. Even when we do something “sordid” it’s perfectly legal. Once again we have been out done by the Flagship.

  9. Pack78 11/09/2012 at 7:33 AM #

    “Campbell was a close associate of Easley, who appointed him to the NCSU board. He provided a host of flights to Easley for campaign and personal trips, and also twice made flights for speakers at an NCSU speakers series that Mary Easley created.”

    For thinking individuals, this will only serve as a reminder of the spread of the u*nx cesspool driven by a u*nx grad who happens to be a convicted felon ex-governor…

  10. LRM 11/09/2012 at 8:33 AM #

    no eleven year olds were plagiarized

    Well done, my friend.

  11. tractor57 11/09/2012 at 8:38 AM #

    My first thought was “Is that all there is?”. Not against any laws or NCAA edicts and a common practice across the land. Stands in stark contrast to the dump on the hump and the activities so allied.

  12. state73 11/09/2012 at 9:45 AM #

    At least this gives the idiots on inside carowhina something to rant and rave over. Screw the unc-cheaters!

  13. packof81 11/09/2012 at 10:21 AM #

    This “NCSU scandal” was actually a UNC scandal. It was a sinecure for Sleazelly’s wife.

    They really did us a favor. We got to clean house and bring in Woodson and Yow.

  14. PoppaJohn 11/09/2012 at 10:26 AM #

    Brilliant

  15. Sweet jumper 11/09/2012 at 1:25 PM #

    A Carolwhina booster, Paul Lawing, provided his plane to pick up Ol’ Roy and bring him home from Kansas when he we was hired to replace the Doh-boy. Lawing is now in prison for fraud and malfeasance after his natural gas company went bellyup after he bilked investors out of large sums of money. He also wrote bad checks and sold a group of ACC tournament tickets to multiple people and never delivered any tickets. People in glass houses should not throw stones.

  16. ADVENTUROO 11/09/2012 at 2:10 PM #

    OK,

    As the Admiral in Top Gun told Maverick, “Your family name ain’t the BEST in the Navy. You need to be doing it cleaner and better than anyone else”….

    What the N&O doesn’t SEEM to recall is THEY endorsed all the candidates that received and improperly reported the benefits.

    The “Rielle WHO” crowd needed to have a hadline….which sells better…..Sex or Sunday School Trips..

    SO, drag out good ole WELL CONNECTED Campbell McQueen and then join him at the hip with NCSU’s coaches.

    The ONLY thing that I would say about this is what George Bush supposedly said, in private, about entering the Oval Offce……Steam clean everything. Disinfect everything….remove all of Bill and Monica’s DNA from the room….BEFORE I move t….”

    Since Campbell has traded planes and helicopters, I ASSUME that the planes used to ferry around (without ANY reporting) are NOT the same planes that Mike and Sleazley Gang flew in.

    If Coach TOB and Coach Gott got into any ONE of those planes, then I would be really disappointed in their character….

    After all,the N&O told us to VOTE for some old candidates (John Brooks for example) that had been outsted many years ago in grand style….

    It was UP THE CAMPAIGN to report the trips….NOT McQueen. NOW, I can’t defend his stupidity or our EX Chancellor’s for the Mary Easley episode…..one has to wonder if the Sleazey crowd has photos of one or both of them in compromsing situations….

    Just trying to sell them News Papers…..

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