North Carolina athletics director Dick Baddour made a surprise visit to UNC’s football media day, opening a news conference in Chapel Hill by saying he would handle the questions on the NCAA investigation so that coach Butch Davis could deal with football.

Baddour said the NCAA came to Chapel Hill and went over all the issues involved. “It’s very complicated, very detailed and it’s going to take a lot of time to sort it out,” Baddour said.

Baddour said UNC has assembled a team to investigate, including people from the university counsel and athletics compliance. He said he does not have a timetable for when the school might have an answer from the NCAA.

“I have my own personal benchmarks and goals but I don’t want to throw those out because that creates expectations,” Baddour said.

Baddour said he understands the public has a right to know but wants to balance that against the rights of the individuals involved. He said UNC is cooperating completely with the NCAA and, again, said the NCAA did not want details of the investigation to leak out.

After Baddour finished, Davis took the podium and addressed issues involving the team but declined to be specific about the investigation. He said that Carolina would have to address the uncertainty about whether the players could play at some point but said, “We’re not at that point yet.”

However, read the post below to see that UNC is preparing – just in case.

North Carolina is holding a football media day today in Chapel Hill, with coach Butch Davis speaking at noon and players available after that. We’ll have updates from here early this afternoon.

A case study by the NCAA’s Agent, Gambling and Amateurism activities staff shows North Carolina players Marvin Austin and Cam Thomas likely would have been in violation of NCAA rules if a former teammate paid for them to travel to California to attend a work-out camp in 2009.

Thomas, in an interview with The News & Observer Tuesday, said former UNC player Kentwan Balmer, who is now with the San Francisco 49ers, paid for the trip.
The question, then, is whether that violates the complex web of NCAA rules. The answer to that appears to be yes, according to an NCAA case study that is similar to what actually occurred.

Here’s the question from the NCAA’s case study:

• Student-athlete attends draft party for former teammate.
• Former teammate provides student-athlete round trip airfare and lodging to attend party.
• Would this be permissible under NCAA legislation?

Here’s the NCAA answer:

• Under Bylaw 12.1.2.1.6 this would not be permissible.
• The standard for such cases involving benefits provided to a current student-athlete from a former teammate should be whether the type of benefit provided is consistent with what was provided when the donor and recipient of the benefit were college teammates.

The only way this would appear to be permissible would be if Balmer had paid for such trips when he was still a UNC player. And that’s highly unlikely.

How much Austin, or UNC, would be penalized is hard to say. But in general, the NCAA is much more severe when there is a pattern of institutional abuse or when those involved are not truthful with NCAA investigators. Oklahoma State receiver Dez Bryant, for example, was suspended for all of 2009 after he lied to the NCAA about his relationship with Deion Sanders.

UNC is being ultra-careful in this case, referring all comments to athletics director Dick Baddour. Assistant coach John Blake, Austin and receiver Greg Little have not spoken to the media in preseason.

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier has never been shy in his comments, and he took a swipe at North Carolina assistant John Blake on Tuesday in comments to The Columbia State newspaper.

Spurrier said the Yahoo! Sports article is “not very surprising.” In that, Blake’s relationship with agent Gary Wichard is questioned.

“We all have a reputation, especially guys who’ve coached 20 years or so,” Spurrier told the newspaper. “It’s hard to hide whatever your reputation is.”

Spurrier is the former Duke head coach who used to privately make fun of UNC’s Mack Brown by calling him “Mr. Football.”

The most damaging part of the Yahoo! Sports report on the NCAA investigation into UNC is that agent Gary Wichard appeared to lie about his relationship with Tar Heels assistant John Blake.

Yahoo Sports quotes Wichard as saying Blake was never Vice President of Football Operations for his Pro Tect operation. “No. When he left Oklahoma, all he ever did was work out some of my veteran guys,” Wichard told the site. “He had his own camp out here. He was doing his own thing.”

However, Yahoo produced a brochure that listed Blake as that position. And Yahoo is reporting that the NCAA investigation is focusing on the relationship between Blake and Wichard.

Blake has not spoken to reporters, and UNC athletics director Dick Baddour continues to say Carolina won’t comment as the investigation continues. But the report continues to cast light on the ugly side of big-time football – and raises difficult implications for UNC. Blake is widely regarded as one of the best recruiters in college football.