This has been a recurring theme since last Thursday or so. One poster on Inside Carolina has been saying UNC has received a "report" and that it is mostly good news. Then there was the Dr. Blog post on some random blog which was obviously setup just to report on the NCAA investigation of UNC. The latest in the string of posts exonerating UNC is this one from Chuck Oliver who hosts a show on 680 The Fan in Atlanta. Here are the basic juicy details:
That’s an explanation of how the story "broke" and the aftermath. When I spoke with my contact again yesterday I was given a few more details. The short version . . .
- I stand by the credibility of this information. Not sure why it hasn’t leaked out other places yet, but I don’t hesitate at all in posting it again in this update. The individual I got this from is about as well placed as you can be in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
- The investigation of Little and Austin in regards to Miami Beach is complete and the findings were compiled Wednesday night. That led to Thursday’s text message to me.
- North Carolina expected to be informed of the findings by C.O.B. Friday at the latest, but there’s a chance that didn’t happen. I should know more as we move through the week.
- UNC hiring the attorney from Kansas that had previously worked for the NCAA and specializes in cases like this in anticipation of an appeal, if that’s how Carolina chooses to proceed.
- Austin actually could be suspended anywhere from one game to as many as four, but the belief is one game.
- This is an entirely separate matter from the trip Austin and former Tar Heel Cam Thomas took last year to work out in California. UNC’s hope is that the suspension of Austin is only for one game and that the only fallout of the trip to California is that Austin is required to pay back the dollar value of the trip. If not, it could result in a suspension (taking the total from just the one game vs. LSU to as many as four, as referenced in the item above).
In this case we have a sports radio host saying what has been discussed on IC for the past five days and that is UNC has the NCAA's report and it is mostly good news. It is a little more vague than the Dr. Blog post since it allows for the possibility Austin could be suspended more than one game. Dr. Blog stated Austin would be out for one game. All three reports maintain UNC received findings last Wednesday night. This obviously flies in the face of what Dick Baddour said last week when he spoke of UNC having no idea when the NCAA would deign to release their findings. Then again Baddour could be playing coy which would not be the first time.
When the story stagnated and no findings were made public, Dr. Blog presented an explanation as to why.
Be that as it may, UNC and the NCAA were prepared to release the information in the report on Friday. It was the opinion of Evrard that the appeal of the suspension for Austin should be crafted prior to public comsumption of the information. As the NCAA is quite happy to handle these types of things outside the pervue of the media, they agreed wholeheartedly.
The word you are looking for where this explanation is concerned is "convenient." Yes, it seems awfully convenient that we have this neat little package delivered to explain why the report UNC allegedly has is not being released.
At this point I am not buying. Dr. Blog talks about chatter around the football team. The IC poster is saying similar things to the point I think the former is posting information from the latter. In fact I don't just think that, I know that to be the case since there are certain lines on other post that appear to be directly copied and pasted from Inside Carolina's premium board without attribution unless Dr. Blog and the IC poster are the same person, a charge the latter has denied on IC.
So why post all of these rumors since almost none of it can be considered reliable? Mainly to have it all in one place to see how it turns out. As I said, the only point I will even begin to think about making a move for my wallet is when word comes from the NCAA or UNC on the matter. Could the fact you have three places reporting similar information mean something? Possibly but it seems more likely these three parties are all using each other as sources to pass along the same information.
And the wait goes on...