Tar Heels face the music

North Carolina's football program gets the bad news today at 3 p.m. from the NCAA regarding nine major violations in the program dating to the 2010 investigation into impermissible benefits. UNC has self-imposed two years of probation and the loss of nine scholarships. Conventional wisdom, and what happened with Miami, Georgia Tech, and Ohio State penalties, would suggest it's not enough. Recruiting coach John Blake "resigned" under fire, and head coach Butch Davis was subsequently axed.

But kudos to the NCAA. It has managed to upstage March Madness with football news, even on Tobacco Road. Here's a link:

http://www.wralsportsfan.com/unc/story/10599335/

 

They could get the death penalty -- and I don't mean the NCAA version, I mean Butch Davis under the guillotine on the campus quad -- and it wouldn't upstage March Madness in North Carolina.

 

I think an appropriate punishment would be for the UNC basketball team to have to play NCAA Tournament games outside of the Carolinas for the first time maybe ever.

 

Outside the Carolinas? When did they have to travel to South Carolina? ;D

 

I was trying to be careful.

 

Any penalties for violations that serious and calculated that do not include at least a two-year postseason ban is insufficient. Post-season bans to accompany the scholarship limitations are the are the only penalties that seem to get offender's attention.

I suspect Oregon's up next, even tho it's trying its hardest to settle and not have to go in front of the Committee on Infractions, even though it could qualify as a repeat offender and not be eligible for the summary judgement it is seeking.

 

Given the way the NCAA works, Oregon is at least a year away from getting a ruling on that case I would think.

 

Plus 15 scholarships over three years.

 

Plus John Blake gets a three-year "show cause" provision, which essentially means he won't be coaching in the college ranks for three years. As if that was going to happen.

On the clock: Miami and Oregon.

 

Butch Davis should have avoided John Blake, show cause or no. And now Chapel Hill will pay a heavy price.

Well ... there is Greenville/Spartanburg or Charleston. There ARE much worse places ... but you're right, ... the NCAA will gladly go there for baseball, not basketball.

 

Word is coming down that UNC Football reportedly will receive probation and sit out a bowl game in 2012, per Scot Van Pelt on ESPN Radio a few minutes ago.