“Just because we didn’t meet our normal standards doesn’t mean it’s a violation of the by-laws”, athletic director Bubba Cunningham said in a conference call with reporters.
Advertisement
UNC is also challenging all academic related charges, including “failure to monitor”, on both the NCAA’s statute of limitations (four years) and the NCAA’s “jurisdiction over the academic affairs”.
“UNC-Chapel Hill accepts full responsibility for its serious past academic problems, and it has addressed them directly without regard to cost or reputational harm”, Evrard and Kirchner wrote in UNC’s response.
The investigation has focused on former philosophy instructor Jan Boxill, who is accused of providing illegal academic benefits to women’s basketball players from 2007 to 2010. But, by containing the damage at that point, Carolina can more stoutly defend itself against the “lack of institutional control charge” contained in the NOA. The sum of Boxill’s violations amounts to one of the five Level I infractions the NCAA alleges against the university.
UNC admitted in its response that Boxill provided extra benefits in 15 of 18 alleged circumstances as outlined by the amended notice.
Allegation 4 (Failure to monitor Boxill): The university went into detail as to why jurisdictional and procedural issues bar this particular allegation.
In a statement released by her attorney, Boxill denied all allegations against her, arguing that she was unaware any of her assistance could be considered impermissible. “I haven’t engaged in any speculation about penalties”, said Cunningham.
Beyond today’s post and consistent with NCAA protocols, University officials are unable to comment on the substance of the investigation until the case is complete. There were also charges against each of the two former AFAM staffers most directly linked to the irregularities for failing to cooperate with NCAA investigators. The document will be posted on the “Carolina Commitment” website.
Targeting the NCAA’s jurisdiction over academics is done publicly here by UNC and may have been part of the discussion behind the scenes as well.
North Carolina was responding to the NCAA’s amended notice, sent April 25.
UNC will now await the NCAA’s response to the admissions, which typically is delivered within a month.
That doesn’t guarantee that a resolution will be reached 8-12 weeks after the hearing.
“It’s a very important step in Carolina’s history to proceed”, said Cunningham. But the university allows these anomalous courses contined for “at least six years – past reports suggested a much longer time frame – and were not ceased until 2011”.
UNC’s academic case centers on independent study-style courses that required no class time and one or two research papers in the formerly named African and Afro-American Studies department. We warned you not to expect any of the basketball program’s championship banners to fall.
Advertisement
The key differences from the first notice of allegations and the second NOA are as follows: the sports of football and men’s basketball aren’t mentioned in the amended NOA, as they were in the first. UNC previously disclosed the original notice sent in May 2015 and reported new information last August that the NCAA determined warranted the revised notice.
