One year to the day the NCAA notified UNC it was initiating an investigation, the bill comes due.
The full notice can be found at Tar Heel Blue.
In all there are nine major. violations listed. The central figures in most of the infractions are names you have heard repeatedly over the past year: Former assistant coach John Blake, NCAA designated ALC and former UNC player Chris Hawkins, former tutor Jennifer Wiley and the late agent Gary Wichard.
Among the charges were failure to monitor(applied to Hawkins but not Blake), impermissible benefits from various individuals including Wiley, Wichard, Hawkins and some guy named Willy, impermissible academic help/academic fraud, failure to monitor social media, unethical conduct by multiple individuals and Blake essentially declared an ALC(Agent Like Creature) by the NCAA. Here is a detailed summary of the allegations.
Allegation #1: Impermissible academic assistance
UNC has redacted most of the names though they did let Michael McAdoo's slip through. Two players received assistance from a now former tutor in academic support. At this point we assume this is Wiley though I wonder why her name would be redacted here but not later in the document. The two players received improper assistance on various papers such as providing outlines, thesis statements and works cited pages. The assistance occurred in 2008 and 2009 which means UNC used an ineligible player in the 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons. Michael McAdoo's name slipped through the redaction which explains the 2008 and 2009 seasons. The player ineligible for the 2009 and 2010 seasons is not known.
Allegation #2: Impermissible benefits from Jennifer Wiley
Wiley provided $150 for a plane ticket and $1789 to pay for parking tickets. And yes, from everything I have heard, the beneficiary of Ms. Wiley's generosity was Greg Little. The NCAA also tallied up all the tutoring Wiley provided UNC players after she left academic support putting the total at $1562. Yes, it is ironic that the NCAA is penalizing players getting tutor. I know its wrong but it still strikes me as ironic.
Allegation #3: Ethical conduct violation for Jennifer Wiley
Basically she refused to cooperate. The NCAA details how many times they attempted to contact Wiley and that either her or her attorneys did not return calls. In other words Wiley and her representatives told the NCAA to pound sand which is not shocking. The NCAA cannot compel a response so why endanger yourself legally or otherwise by talking to them? Wiley chose not to and that could be an issue for UNC since the NCAA can basically infer guilt on the institution for her actions.
Allegation #4: Seven players receive improper benefits
These are mostly items we were already aware of in some form or another. Among the individuals named providing improper benefits are Gary Wichard, Todd Steward of Pro Sports Financial, former UNC players Kentwan Balmer, Hakeem Nicks, Omar Brown and Mahlon Carey, Michael Katz of Rosenhaus Sports, a jewler named A.J. Mosciato and some guy named Willie. No last name is know for Willie but the NCAA can give you an exact dollar amount on the benefits he provided. The NCAA lists out every single benefit which included one that was $5.
If you have been paying attention over the past year you know Deunta Williams and Kendric Burney were suspended over the benefits from Omar Brown. Burney was also involved with Hawkins. Little and Robert Quinn received jewelry from Mosciato. Katz and Stewart's names came out a few months back when disassociation letters came to light. Austin's connections to Wichard and Balmer were well documented as was the benefits provided by Nicks. In other words, there is nothing new in this allegation not already discussed last fall when the NCAA passed judgment on Austin, Quinn, Little, Williams and Burney.
Allegation #5: Ethical conduction violation by Marvin Austin
Austin's name is redacted but it is clear he is the one being referred to here since the allegations details various trips and the fact Austin either lied or failed to provide the requested information.
Allegation #6: John Blake marketed players to Gary Wichard
Translation: John Blake is an agent-like creature. Anyone who markets a player to an agent or anyone else is considered an ALC. The more interesting aspect of this allegation is the evidence the NCAA used which included the testimony of former Oklahoma player Brian Bosworth, Nebraska defensive line coach(and former UNC DC) Marvin Sanders as well as various documents connecting Blake to Wichard such as brochures and financial records. The money trail will probably be the more compelling part of this allegation. The testimoney of Bosworth and the phone call to Suh strikes me as not nearly as damning, especially Bosworth talking about things that happened well before Blake was at UNC.
Allegation #7: John Blake failed to report $31,000 in income from Pro Tect
Any athletic department employee(except secretaries) are required to disclose any outside income they receive which is "athletically related." This can be anything from working at a sports camp to a shoe contract. Blake's relationship with Wichard and money he received from him would fall into this category. Blake did not disclose the fact he received seven wire transfers from Wichard totaling $31,000 over a two year period while at UNC. Obviously this is connected to the above allegation naming Blake as an ALC.
Allegation #8: Ethical conduct violation by John Blake
Blake blatantly lied about his connections to Pro Tect in interviews with the NCAA on August 3rd and 31st. After he left UNC, Blake stopped cooperating altogether which, like Wiley, could cause UNC problems. In fact I doubt Blake bothers to respond to any of this business and as a result he will be slapped with a show-cause so long his kids will be barred from coaching at an NCAA school.
Allegation #9: Failure to monitor Chris Hawkins, social networking
Basically UNC did not do a good enough job of keeping an eye on Hawkins and the shenanigans happening on Facebook, Twitter, etc. The NCAA has declared Hawkins to be an ALC and UNC should have been aware of this or at the very least kept Hawkins at bay. Now, there is a question of whether UNC had cause to know Hawkins was bad news and I have yet to see an answer to that query where the NCAA's labeling of Hawkins as a ALC is concerned. There is the issue of UNC failing to follow-up on information received that a student-athlete was receiving improper benefits. There is some confusion here as to whether it was Hawkins providing those reported benefits or not. The allegation refers to "individuals" which might include Hawkins but it might not. At any rate, if UNC had information something was going on and did nothing about it, the administrator who received that tip will probably need to answer some pointed questions.
Analysis
Doc will be along in the morning to delve into most of these. As I stated, there is not much here we didn't already know and most of this information is consistent with the Inside Carolina report from two weeks ago. Three of the violations are ethical conduct issues for Wiley, Blake and Austin who are no longer associated with the program or in the case of Austin declared permanently ineligible. Blake and Wiley both have two other violations each attached to them which covers seven of the nine violations among those three individuals. In other words, UNC's defense that this was a rogue tutor and assistant coach behaving badly appears to have worked. The other two violations have mostly been dealt with on the individual level. Hawkins has been disassociated and the players involved with the impermissible benefits have all been nailed for it.
The question now is how the NCAA deals with this as a bundle. UNC has 90 days to respond and according to Dick Baddour, is not asking for a summary disposition, at least not yet. There could very well be parts of this UNC might want to challenge to see if they can at least take some of the edge off. The Blake violations and the failure to monitor are easily the most damaging. The fact you have multiple facets happening all at the same time might not work in UNC's favor either. Based on the reaction of the national media on my Twitter timeline, the sum of the parts looks worse than the parts did when we had them laying all over the floor. To see it all packed into one document is powerful but at the same I am not convinced this is any worse than what was already known. The biggest question will be how the NCAA deals with the Blake violations and whether three whole seasons will be vacated on the basis of the two academic violations.
As for speculation about Butch Davis, Baddour reaffirmed the coaches' standing. In the eyes of the administration nothing has changed because they mostly knew what was in the document. Not to mention, the way the allegations are laid out, Davis appears to be insulated. Sure you can connect dots in a circumstantial manner but nothing concrete ties Davis to the violations. Davis also never lied or attempted a cover-up as Jim Tressell did at Ohio St. Since UNC's appearance before the Committee on Infractions is on October 28th, the safe bet is Davis survives at least the 2011 season. After that, all bets are off and it would not shock me to see Davis take another job elsewhere assuming the NCAA determines the UNC coach did nothing for which he can be held directly responsible.
The bottom line is this thing is far from over but this is at least significant movement in the direction of closure.