New Findings May Delay UNC’s Response to NCAA Allegations

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced on Friday that its officials had reported additional potential violations to the NCAA that may implicate the women’s basketball and men’s soccer teams.

The first two allegations state that North Carolina athletes received impermissible benefits unavailable to the rest of the student body when their academic counselors obtained special assistance and privileges for them. Cunningham said in a press conference that he could not say whether the new information will impact current or former soccer players. The new information was reported to the NCAA Committee on Infractions on August. 10 as required by the NCAA infractions program.

UNC said Friday that additional examples of potentially improper academic assistance were directly related to the second allegation in the existing NOA.

Chapel Hill officials had been preparing to release the university’s response to the NCAA next week, but that response will now be delayed while the association reviews the new information.

“I know today’s announcement will cause some to ask when all of this will end”, UNC Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham said in a statement.

“We are fully cooperating with the NCAA and continue to work with them to bring closure to this long, arduous process”, Cunningham said.

The NCAA had initially given UNC until Tuesday to respond to the association’s allegations.

Based on the NCAA’s published matrix of violations and punishments, which defines the allegations against UNC as “Level I violations”, any penalty could include a postseason ban and loss of scholarships for teams implicated, fines of up to 5 percent of the athletic department budget, suspensions of active coaches and limits on contact with recruits. We will continue to work closely with the NCAA to investigate this matter and avoid unnecessary delays.

The violations are for women’s basketball and men’s soccer. This is just another item added to the long list of violations women’s basketball is contending with from the already released notice of allegations. UNC had not yet been charged with anything recruiting related. The lack of institutional control focused on the AFAM department and the academic support program for athletes, including the conduct of a women’s basketball adviser for providing too much help on assignments.

It’s safe to assume Roy Williams will coach in the 2016 NCAA tourney. On the other hand, the 2016 recruiting class for basketball could suffer mightily if the top players UNC is pursuing decide they simply can’t wait to make a college decision.