North Carolina Investigates Itself For Possible Recruiting Infraction ... Surprise! ... Clears Self of Wrong Doing

By Trashtalk Superstar


The University of North Carolina conducted an internal investigation over potential violations of NCAA basketball recruiting guidelines. UNC determined that no NCAA rules had been intentionally violated and that the basketball program is, therefore, totally clean.

Whew!

What if North Carolina had decided that they were guilty? Would they have imposed sanctions upon themselves?

The act of conducting an internal investigation is a total charade. In the last two years, the Ohio State and Kansas basketball programs have conducted similar internal investigations. Like UNC, they also determined that while some violations may technically have occurred (unintentionally, of course), they all resulted from big misunderstandings. Honestly.

Not surprisingly, in the previous two cases, the NCAA determined that the self reporting was sufficient and that no NCAA sanctions were necessary. North Carolina will get the same response.

Look, the recruiting violation that UNC committed was minor and probably was actually unintentional. And for the record, the NCAA is a shockingly inefficient bureaucracy whose rules and bylaws are often vague at best. It's unbelievably easy to unintentionally violate some ridiculous NCAA bylaw. Anyone who has ever played or coached a college sport at an NCAA institution can attest to this.

North Carolina violated a ticky tacky NCAA rule. They almost certainly were unaware that they were committing a recruiting infraction. After all, the recruit merely talked to two former UNC basketball players at a UNC football game. That could have even occurred without anyone in the basketball program knowing about it. Logically, what's to stop a recruit from recognizing a former player and initiating a conversation with that former player? And accordingly, would a former player have to refuse to acknowledge a stranger who attempts to initiate a conversation with him? Even if he's unaware that the person attempting to initiate the conversation is a basketball recruit?

Many of the NCAA's bylaws are preposterous. North Carolina (which is generally regarded as a clean program) violated one such bylaw. But the rules are the rules. And North Carolina should be treated like any other basketball program which has committed a recruiting violation.

Unfortunately, the NCAA's method for distributing sanctions/punishment may be even more mysterious and questionable than any of the inane bylaws in their dauntingly volumnous rulebook. Marquee programs like Kansas, Ohio State and North Carolina are almost almost never held accountable for their infractions of NCAA bylaws. But programs of lesser stature usually get the book thrown at them. Kentucky basketball has long been notorious for not playing by the rules. At various times in their history, they haven't even pretended to follow the rules. Take for instance the fact that during one practice session, legendary Kentucky coach Adolf Rupp erupted at one of his players: "For what we're paying you, you damned well better play better than that." That was in the 1940's. Yet the NCAA left Kentucky alone until 1989 - when the FBI busted the Kentucky basketball program and coach Eddie Sutton for mailing thousands of dollars in cash to recruits. Only after the FBI became involved did the NCAA decide it was time to look into possible recruiting violations at Kentucky.

North Carolina's recruiting infraction was minor. They really don't deserve anything more than a slap on the wrist. Not that Tar Heels fans have anything to worry about: a slap on the wrist is the most that UNC will receive (truth be told, they probably won't even get slapped on the wrist - they're North Carolina after all). But the NCAA has dished out heavy penalties to other schools for committing similar minor violations. Our readers who are Illinois fans know this all too well.

For the purpose of clarity, it isn't Drive and Dish's intent to slam North Carolina. What we're slamming is the uneven treatment of member institutions by the NCAA.