“The NCAA cited UNC-Chapel Hill for violations that included academic fraud, impermissible agent benefits, ineligible participation and failure to monitor its football program. The school did avoid the more serious charge for lack of institutional control, an infraction that cost the University of Southern California a two-year postseason ban and the loss of 30 scholarships over a three-year period in 2010.
“The postseason ban, which also includes the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game, and scholarship reductions were just two of the eight penalties the NCAA levied against UNC. The school had already imposed several of those penalties on itself.”
– Sammy Batten, Fayetteville Observer
“(Marvin) Austin won a Super Bowl ring with the New York Giants despite not playing a down, not the first time he’s accepted jewelry he didn’t exactly earn. (Robert) Quinn, a first-round pick of the St. Louis Rams, had five sacks as a rookie. And Greg Little, another prominent violator of NCAA rules, was second among rookies with 62 catches for the Cleveland Browns.
“Only (Assistant Coach John) Blake, who received a show-cause order from the NCAA, will bear any lasting sting – the NCAA will keep him out of coaching for three years.”
– Luke DeCock, Raleigh News & Observer
“It is the first penalty the NCAA has ever imposed on the North Carolina football program. Given that Dean Smith built North Carolina into a basketball power with an almost self-righteous adherence to the rules, given that former chancellor William C. Friday has been a leader in NCAA reform for the past 25 years, the report released Monday is a black eye on a perennially virtuous face.”
– Ivan Maisel, ESPN.com
“As a coach, he’s (Butch Davis has) still got it. He just won’t have “it” in major college football for a while. In his zeal to make Carolina into one of the “haves” he used terrible judgment. This case can be boiled down to Davis hiring John Blake. Davis, the man who diligently led Miami out of the NCAA muck, drove North Carolina football into quicksand the moment he asked Blake to join the staff. He knew Blake’s recruiting rep. We all did. Blake was always a hell of a recruiter. Just don’t tell that to an NCAA investigator without he or she snickering.
“Blake not only was moonlighting with an agent at North Carolina – the since deceased Gary Wichard – he also either failed to cooperate with the NCAA or took his time doing it. Blake refused to provide information and when he did, it was bogus according to the NCAA.”
– Dennis Dodd, CBS Sports
“The penalties handed down Monday proved once again that the reward is still far greater than the risk as long as coaches and athletic directors understand a few things from the outset. A program can spit all over the NCAA rule book in an effort to reach or remain at the highest echelon of college football, and as long as that program cooperates with the NCAA during the investigation of its alleged “crimes,” the Committee on Infractions will respond with a suite of penalties that contain far more bark than bite.”
– Andy Staples, Sports Illustrated