UNC allegations
News broke Monday – and there was a lot of news breaking Monday – about the latest notice of allegations for the UNC athletic department.
This recent – and revised – list is staggering in its limited scope. The latest list of charges from the NCAA in what has been arguably the longest and most convoluted case ever was watered down by comparison, and did not have a key clause that included charges of academic benefits of athletes in the 2000s in certain African-American Studies majors. That is crucial because that’s the circle of interest that could really hammer the basketball and football programs.
And not unlike Kentucky, UNC is one of the rare college athletic departments that cares more what happens to the hoops program than the football program. And without those clauses, it could work out that nothing happens to the basketball program, even though a lot of this investigation started because of the allegations levied by former hoops star Rashad McCants, who was the second-leading scorer on the 2005 national title team.
Moving forward, and since this is a topic we have consistently discussed this around these parts, this could very well be the first sign of the NCAA folding its cards against a Power Five blue blood. And that is especially true when it comes to hoops, because the NCAA only exists because of the NCAA tournament and March Madness. Period.