Alternate headline: Could everyone not currently under Dick Baddour’s gag order please tell the media what you know right now so we can get it all out there at once?
Unfortunately that headline would probably break my Twitter feed.
Via Joe Giglio at ACC Now who talked to former UNC player Cam Thomas about the 2009 trip Marvin Austin took to ProActive Sports in CA. According to Thomas he was also on the trip and it was paid for by former Heel and current S.F. 49er Kentwan Balmer.
Thomas, a rookie defensive tackle for the San Diego Chargers, did not provide financial details, or the dates, but said he and Austin worked out at the Proactive Sports Performance in Westlake Village, Calif. in the summer before the 2009 season.
Reached by phone on Tuesday afternoon, Thomas, who started all 13 games for UNC in the 2009 season, said he and Austin took the trip together and “‘Twan paid for [the trip].” Thomas, the Chargers’ fifth-round pick, then declined further comment.
Balmer, Thomas and Austin were teammates at UNC for the 2007 season and each played defensive tackle. Their position coach was John Blake, UNC’s recruiting coordinator and associate head coach. Austin and Blake’s relationship with California-based agent Gary Wichard has become a part of the NCAA investigation into the UNC football program, Wichard said last Thursday.
If this is true and really there is no reason to doubt Cam Thomas’ word on the issue, it presents a fairly significant issue. Up until now we were all assuming any alleged violations committed by Austin or Greg Little occurred after the 2009 season meaning no actual games were in danger. Now this revelation has popped about Austin and Thomas taking a trip prior to the 2009 season, there is the possibility the NCAA could do unholy things to UNC’s 8-5 record.
Giglio spoke with UNC compliance officer Amy Herman who took the sock out of her mouth long enough to speak hypothetically about how the NCAA would handle a violation of the “preferential treatment” rule. The answer is no one knows because punishments are not spelled out. Basically the NCAA will interpret the situation and rule accordingly. If I were a betting man, I would wager that no one realized a former teammate(and obviously a friend) paying for something constituted an NCAA violation. The NCAA does make exceptions for players receiving benefits where a prior relationship is in place and their position as an athlete is not used to induce the benefit. In this case, the fact the relationship was formed on the football team and the benefit was afforded because Austin and Thomas were football players means it is preferential in nature.
The other side of this is whether Balmer footing the bill for Austin and Thomas constitutes him acting as a runner for Gary Wichard or whether John Blake is steering clients in Wichard’s direction. That is the crux of the NCAA’s focus here though I am sure they will take a vested interest in what Thomas has to say. As best as I can tell Thomas is not a client of Wichard and Thomas is also on record a few weeks ago saying he was never offered money by an agent. You could take that to mean both he and Austin were unaware taking money from a former teammate was an issue or they failed to check with the compliance office on the matter.
So toss this log onto the fire, keep roasting your marshmallows and hope the NCAA comes along shortly to put the darn thing out.
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I’m doubtful this fire is ever going to be put out
I mean enough already!!
Former track Olympian Antonio Pettigrew was found dead today.
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/trackandfield/news/story?id=5452124
god, make it stop. makes me not care if we even have a football season if this crap is going to keep dragging out.
i dunno. if this is all about well established friends buying other friends a plane ticket, it just doesnt seem to rise to the level of anything magnificent.
i’m not saying there is or isnt anything wrong with this comparison, but when some recruit’s family member suddenly has a nice job in the Chapel Hill or Lexington or Los Angeles area, which means 10s of thousands of dollars, thats more of a “favor” than a plane ticket.
wheres info about a car, or money from a booster, or grades altered? those are serious infractions.
Chapel Hill…we have a problem. If this crap is going on we should take the heat and get this behind us. Oh father, the shame……………………
I saw on ESPN’s ticker that Austin and Little will not be allowed to play until after they are cleared by the NCAA. I think this is the correct course of action to take, of course no one really knows how long the NCAA is going to take on this investigation……
So where do we go from here? And since I’m no expert on NCAA rules, if Butch just lays down a two or three game suspension will that be enough to satisfy the wolves? I understand the NCAA has rules and everything, but at this point you have to be worried to give a scholarship athlete a Christmas or birthday present with everything going on…….
This whole thing is stupid. So you can’t even have a guy who used to play on the same team as you pay for your trip? I can understand if a player was payed by a booster to come to the college to play or to even stay at the college to play. But I just don’t get why it hurts the college if a player is getting trips and such by former players and even agents. If they are not getting paid to play in college, who cares?
Once Balmer graduated he became a booster, so basically it is the same.
Basically and if he gave some money to the Rams Club which is possible then he is a booster by every accepted definition.
As for UNC suspending players, that won’t matter. The NCAA often watches school attempt to fall on their own sword then punishes them anyway or adds to it. Self discipline, at least in all the cases I have seen, rarely gets the NCAA to back off doing whatever they want to do.
OK, Balmer could be seen as a booster, too, but if they were doing things to get Austin to get up with this agent AFTER he leaves Carolina, then I still don’t see why this has anything to do with him playing college ball. It is different to pay a kid to come play for your school. But if things were done in regards to what he does AFTER college, then I don’t see why it is a big deal.
oh boy, get home, turn on espn, and the lead story crawling was about balmer having left camp after allegations of improper contact with unc players. looking worse and worse.
^Yeah – I just noticed that myself. Well, there is pretty much an admission of wrong doing by one former player, which was enabled by another former player and may also involve a current player. Not to mention the fact that this was completely out of the blue (I hadn’t heard anything about any suspicion surrounding Cam Thomas) so now its really hard to not worry about what else might be out there.
“As for UNC suspending players, that won’t matter. The NCAA often watches school attempt to fall on their own sword then punishes them anyway or adds to it. Self discipline, at least in all the cases I have seen, rarely gets the NCAA to back off doing whatever they want to do.”
This is by far the best quote I’ve seen regarding how the NCAA handles crime and punishment……..