College football roundup: UNC chancellor will resign amid scandal
University of North Carolina Chancellor Holden Thorp will resign at the end of the school year as the NCAA continues to investigate academic fraud involving the football team, USA Today reported Monday.
Thorp has presided over the investigation for the past two years in a scandal that included football players receiving improper benefits, academic misconduct related to a tutor and concerns about the quality of academic courses in the department of African and Afro-American studies.
Also, an internal audit concluded that Vice Chancellor for Advancement Matt Kupec and Tami Hansbrough -- mother of former basketball star Tyler Hansbrough -- used university money to fund personal trips. They have already resigned.
"I will always do what is best for this university," Thorp said in a statement. "This wasn't an easy decision personally. But when I thought about the university and how important it's been to me, to North Carolinians and to hundreds of thousands of alumni, my answer became clear."
The scandal also cost the jobs of football coach Butch Davis and athletic director Dick Baddour.
---Three University of Wisconsin students were charged on Monday in the alleged attack on Wisconsin running back Montee Ball last month, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.
However, the report also said a witness to the incident told investigators that one of the suspects said Ball had "jumped" him the previous week, according to a complaint filed in Dane County Circuit Court.
The three suspects charged with substantial battery were Wendell J. Venerable, 21; Robert A. Wilks, 22; and Deonte J. Wilson, 21, and witnesses said they were among the five men who beat Ball in downtown Madison, Wis., early on the morning of Aug. 1. One of the other two was not charged, and the fifth was not identified.
A preliminary hearing was set for Oct. 2.
---Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said he has been given a clean bill of health after being hospitalized during halftime of Saturday's game against Arkansas State.
Pelini fell ill during the second quarter and was looked at by the team's medical staff on the sideline. After being treated in the locker room during halftime, he was taken to a hospital as a precaution.
Pelini, 44, said he felt "severe heartburn and burning though my stomach. I just knew I didn't feel good." He said he did not have chest pains and the issue was not related to stress.
---Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 9 for his conviction on 45 counts of child sex abuse, according to USA Today.
Sandusky, 68, faces life in prison.
Pennsylvania Judge John Cleland set the sentencing on Monday. He said he would determine if Sandusky should be classified as a sexually violent predator.
---South Carolina safety D.J. Swearinger will serve a one-game suspension for a hit on defenseless UAB receiver Patrick Hearn.
Swearing will be out for Saturday's game against Missouri for his hit with 5:46 left in the third quarter, SEC commissioner Mike Slive announced in a press release.
Ole Miss defensive back Trae Elston was suspended for Saturday's game against Texas for a violation of the same rule -- 9-1-4 in the NCAA Football Rule Book, which reads "no player shall target and initiate contact to the head and neck area of a defenseless opponent with the helmet, forearm, elbow or shoulder."
