UNC receives Notice of Allegations from NCAA
North Carolina has received its Notice of Allegations from the NCAA "as the next phase in its investigation of academic irregularities and possible bylaw infractions," the school announced Friday.
The news was first reported by Scout.com affiliate Inside Carolina.
The college governing body indicated last June that it would reopen its 2011 investigation of academic irregularities at North Carolina after it determined that "additional people with information and others who were previously uncooperative might be willing to speak with the enforcement staff.”
Last October, North Carolina released a report compiled by former federal prosecutor Kenneth Wainstein following his investigation into the academic irregularities. The report detailed how academic officials created "paper classes" in which students were given good grades with "little regard" for the quality of their work.
The report found that the fraud spanned 18 years and involved roughly 1,500 athletes.
From UNC:
"We take these allegations very seriously, and we will carefully evaluate them to respond within the NCAA’s 90-day deadline,” Chancellor Carol L. Folt and Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham said in a joint statement. "The University will publicly release the NCAA’s notice as soon as possible. The notice is lengthy and must be prepared for public dissemination to ensure we protect privacy rights as required by federal and state law."
• PRICE: How did Carolina lose its way?
In November, the News & Observer reported that men's basketball players accounted for 35 bogus "paper" classes during the Tar Heels' 2004-05 national championship season.
North Carolina coach Roy Williams recently commented on the impact of the academic scandal in a Q&A with The Citizen-Times in Asheville.
"It would help if the NCAA would just tell us what the allegations are. That would help because it would give us the information. It's been a hard process, and I know that has been quite a lot of negative recruiting going on and other things that don't make you very happy.
"But at the same time, we made some mistakes at our university, mistakes we are not proud of. And yet it has been so sensationalized, just off the charts about what has happened."
