As an NC State fan it is a universal belief that the sports coverage in the state of North Carolina and in particular the Triangle has always carried a heavy blue tint whenever the opportunity to do so presented itself. For over 5 years we have watched this UNC scandal unfold in front of our eyes with barely a passing blow from the Triangle Media. Sure it has been talked about but that is conversation usually tries to isolate the issue to one or two people and frequently followed by the “it is no big deal, everyone does it” or “we’re tired of talking about it” brush offs. My favorite time was WRAL’s expose on college athletes that focused squarely on TA McClendon rather than the ‘Wheels for Heels’ program or one of the other hundred prongs of the UNC cheating scandal that was going on at the time. Nope NC State was right in their crosshairs when the whole buffet of cheating was laid out in front of them. I guess their excuse lies somewhere between their journalism school degree and the man who signs their paychecks being a prominent UNC alum (google Capital Broadcasting).
Regardless, conversations and investigations regarding the worst cheating scandal the ACC has ever seen had to be lead by PackPride’s message boards members who are frequently labeled as lunatics or fanatics. While they might be fanatics, maybe they are just frustrated by the lack of effort (Dan Kane obviously excluded) the media has put into their “journalism” regarding the UNC situation that has been going on for years. If these so called lunatics can put the pieces together surely corporation with the resources the size of Capitol Broadcasting can do more than put together an expose on TA McClendon. Right?
I’m speaking for the entirety of the NC State fanbase, the Wainstein report is your chance at redemption and all it takes is for you to ask a few questions. The questions aren’t even that hard to come up with, The Wainstein report lays it all out there for you. Not in the 131 pages but in the additional documents included, specifically the emails between UNC “academic” support staff, coaches, and other faculty.
Let’s start with good ol’ Roy Williams.
Ever since Marvin Austin’s tweet started lifting the veil on the Death Star’s corruption Roy has stated that this is a football issue and not a basketball issue. He’s frequently said that his players are going to class and taking no improper benefits. Kudos to Roy for sticking to those guns as his players have been consistently exposed to be involved with runners, taking free cars and parking them wherever they want, and getting paid by some rogue dentists to name a few issues. Now as the biggest academic scandal in NCAA history is being exposed Roy is saying he had no idea what was going on despite the fact that he moved his kids out of particular AFAM programs and the media has not yet asked a single question regarding this move which seems so contradictory to not knowing about the AFAM paper classes.
When you are a college basketball coach, or any coach for that matter, you spend every moment of your lives with those kids. Even if you don’t want to know anything about what they are doing you undoubtedly know what cars they are driving, who they are hanging out with, what jewelry they are wearing, and 100% you know what classes they are taking and what grades they got in those classes. Roy is/was the most powerful man at the university and he doesn’t know about a scandal as widely spread as this one?
So here ya go media: Roy, with so much time spent with these kids that you claim to care so much about, how could you not know what classes they were taking and the types of classes they were?
Maybe it is an eye-for-an-eye mentality but so be it, in 1989, the media crucified Valvano. His crime? He should’ve known. The media went all in on Jimmy V and that is not me just being a State fan, here’s an article that Charlotte Observer writer Tom Sorenson wrote back in ’89.
Valvano was forced to resign as AD and then eventually forced out as head coach, and NC State self-imposed crippling penalties for essentially the same thing Todd Gurley will miss a few games over.
Here’s a look at Sorenson’s articles this year. Not one on UNC. Now I don’t mean to pick on Tom but he’s a perfect example the media taking any chance they can get at NC State but barely lifting a finger towards UNC. When asked about it on Twitter, he either ignores the question or responds with something like this: 
Other Not to be missed pieces that could make great questions
Here’s a great Pat Kennedy quote from here
“Gary Williams will tell you this, most of the coaches in the ACC felt that Carolina was a fraud in that they walked around like they were Stanford or Vanderbilt or Northwestern, but they weren’t, they were not even Duke. They took the most exceptions the last few years of Dean Smith’s career they took the most exceptions of any school in the ACC. Meaning kids that would not normally get accepted into the university, that were accepted to the university to play sports. I remember one year at Carolina they had 5 exceptions starting on their men’s basketball team. So they were taking guys with very low level qualifications and then they would keep them eligible. By putting them in these courses. So if a guy was close to not being eligible and his GPA was a 1.8 he would then take a couple of these courses and his GPA would be up to 2.4 and then everybody took a deep breath and they did it again”
“And the thing about the coaches not knowing about it in football it’s possible because the coaches at different positions would know about it, but it may not get to the head coach. But in basketball the head coach would know about it because he would have to approve dropping classes and getting into another class to stay eligible for graduation.”
“Coaches and athletic directors, you go to NCAA meetings and there is a lot of squabbling and coaches and ADs start pointing fingers. When I first got to the ACC I had a problem with a few coaches and a few of the other guys said “well do you really want to be the guy to turn Dean Smith in?” and you know as a young coach I said “I guess not” and as young coach you don’t want to turn in a Nick Saban.”
Ok so you maybe you don’t want to touch Roy because the CEO wouldn’t like that, how about you give a call to Marcia Shoop, the wife of former UNC Football Offensive Coordinate, John Shoop, who had some very interesting things to say in her most recent blog post.
But things are not as they seem. And the Wainstein report is not the vessel of truth and transparency that it boasts it is either.
I sat in the room with my husband, John Shoop (the Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach at UNC from 2007-2011), when he was interviewed by Jay Joseph, one of the attorneys on the Wainstein team a few months ago. The testimony that is printed in the report attributed to John is only a fraction of what he actually said. And some very important things were redacted from his account. The Seemers, it seems, are up to something.
She goes on to say:
It is strange, too, that the Wainstein team only interviewed two coaches from the Davis staff.
If the truth was their goal, the Seemers definitely took a wrong turn in the choices they made here. But that’s what Seemers do, they seem to want the truth, but instead they have a plan…… And for affect, the News & Observer demonizes a football staff who was there at the tail end of these classes’ existence. That story line resonates with people and their caricatures about football players and coaches. And it helps keep the basketball team outside these harsh lines of scrutiny.
but it gets better:
The UNC faithful may hate the hear this, but when the NCAA investigation of the football program was in full tilt in 2010-2011, members of the football coaching staff were told (and they were told the directive came from Chancellor Thorp) that they were not to recruit “inner city black kids” any more. This was just one piece of the plan to “change the image of the football program.”
Say what? Chancellor Thorp telling coaches to not recruit “inner city black kids” any more doesn’t get a single question from the media?
Here’s another gem from an NPR interview with Mary Willingham, an athlete said to her:
“Please teach me to read well enough so I can read about myself online”
Don’t want you to miss UNC baseball coach Mike Fox getting caught in the middle of a lie here
Head Baseball Coach Mike Fox explained that he had no knowledge of the paper
classes or any other course that was designed to keep student-athletes eligible. Fox knew that
Chapel Hill offered independent studies, but he discouraged his players from taking them, preferring
that his players physically attend class. Fox stated, and his assistant coaches and former players
confirmed, that he places an emphasis on academics and would bench his athletes if he learned that
they were not attending class
O Rly?
So how about it Triangle Media, the questions are out there and I’ve even provided you with a few and you don’t even have to do that much digging, just go read this thread and come up with your own questions.
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