North Carolina takes issue with NCAA's authority in NOA response
North Carolina admitted wrongdoing in its response to the latest NCAA notice of allegations against it but the school also contends the NCAA is overstepping its bounds in the allegations.
The NCAA re-opened its academic fraud investigation into the school in 2014 and issued an amended notice of allegations in the spring. The investigation surrounded sham classes in the African and Afro-American Studies department that had a disproportionately high enrollment of athletes.
The original investigation resulted in a postseason ban for the North Carolina football team after the 2012 season. Football coach Butch Davis was fired by the school and athletic director Dick Baddour stepped down.
In its public response Tuesday, the school said it has taken significant steps to rectify what the NCAA has termed “academic irregularities” and agreed to varying degrees with three allegations. The NCAA’s investigation resulted in five allegations including a lack of institutional control and UNC disagrees with allegations surrounding its classes on the bounds of accreditation.
“Issues related to UNC-Chapel Hill’s academic irregularities are the proper subject of review by SACSOC, its accrediting agency — not the NCAA, its athletic association. Accordingly, though conduct related to the anomalous courses presents serious institutional issues, it should not and cannot support a lack of institutional control allegation under the NCAA constitution and bylaws absent an underlying rules violation.”
The NCAA’s jurisdiction is the main point of contention within UNC’s response, which you can read here. Now that UNC has responded to the notice of allegations, the NCAA has 60 days to respond and potentially set up a landmark infractions case that establishes a precedent for the NCAA’s authority.
Any punishments for North Carolina would come after an NCAA hearing and potentially after the conclusion of the 2016 football season.
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The school said it self-reported “irregularities” within the AFAM department in 2011 as part of the original investigation. In its reponse, UNC noted “the NCAA determined in the fall of 2011 that these issues do not present violations of the NCAA’s bylaws.”
It also noted that the NCAA’s public report in 2012 addressed the conduct of a tutor that assisted athletes but “did not find any other violation of NCAA bylaws in connection with impermissible academic assistance by ASPSA employees or the academic irregularities in the department.”
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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