Roy Williams dodged a big ole bullet when his name was not mentioned in any of the five level 1 charges rendered against the institution by the NCAA and with Chapel Hill now trying to put the academic scandal in their rear-view mirror the institution will start by rewarding their head basketball coach with an extension, according to Inside Carolina.
The UNC Board of Trustees is in the process of approving the new contract, according to sources familiar with the proceedings. Details have yet to be released by the University.
If you look up “Ride or Die” in the dictionary you might see a picture of the UNC Board of Trustees, who have stuck by Roy even when it looked like academic fraud would take him down.
I’ve always believed in the adage that where there’s smoke there fire, so I’m not so quick to trust that Williams operated his basketball program completely oblivious to the cheating that surrounded him. But since someone else will take the fall for it, he’s in the clear and can get back to business as usual – if that’s a good thing…
If you haven’t been able to view them, here are the five charges listed on the NCAA’s notice. UNC has 90 days to file a response.
• There was a lack of institutional control in failing to “sufficiently monitor” the interactions between the AFAM and the academic support departments, and athletes received “preferential access” to AFAM’s irregular courses.
• Academic counselors “leveraged” relationships from fall 2002 to summer 2011 with AFAM faculty and staff to provide athletes with benefits such as suggesting assignments, turning in papers for them and recommending grades. In addition, 10 athletes exceeded UNC’s 12-hour limit of independent study credits countable toward graduation between fall 2006 and summer 2011 due to misidentified “paper classes.”
• Women’s basketball counselor Jan Boxill provided improper assistance by sometimes adding content to athletes’ papers and recommended a grade for submitted work in at least one case.
• Crowder, one of two AFAM staffers most directly linked to the irregularities, didn’t cooperate with NCAA investigators.
• Former AFAM department chairman Julius Nyang’oro, the other staffer most directly linked to the irregular courses, also declined to cooperate.
