UNC AD: Syracuse sanctions have no impact on UNC's NCAA case

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham says the NCAA's punishment of Syracuse has no bearing on the ongoing

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham says the NCAA's punishment of Syracuse has no bearing on the ongoing academic-misconduct case at UNC.

Cunningham says NCAA enforcement staffers evaluate cases independently and that UNC's case is ''vastly different'' than the one at Syracuse.

The NCAA sanctioned Syracuse on Friday for academic, drug and gifts violations committed primarily by the men's basketball program. Hall of Fame men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim was suspended for nine Atlantic Coast Conference games next year as part of several penalties.

The NCAA reopened its academic-misconduct investigation at UNC last summer. Cunningham says there isn't a timeline for its completion.

An independent investigation outlined how fraud in an academic department at UNC spanned nearly two decades and affected about 3,100 students, roughly half being athletes.