UNC self-reports new potential violations
CHAPEL HILL (WTVD) -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced Friday that while responding to the "notice of allegations" from the NCAA in the investigation of academic irregularities and possible bylaw infractions involving student athletes, it "identified two new pieces of information potentially requiring further review."
The new information was reported to the NCAA Committee on Infractions on Aug. 10 as required by the NCAA infractions program.
The university said while preparing for public release of a series of emails from an independent investigation, officials "found additional examples of possible instances of improper academic assistance provided to a few former women's basketball players, directly related to allegation number two in the May 20, 2015, notice of allegations."
The "notice of allegations" stated that the collegiate sports governing body found a lack of institutional control that constitutes a "severe breach of conduct" at the North Carolina school.
The school said as part of their "due diligence in preparing" their response to the notice, they also notified the NCAA's enforcement staff about potential recruiting violations in the men's soccer program that allegedly occurred over the past two years.
"While these potential violations are completely unrelated to the allegations in the NCAA's current notice of allegations, the University is obligated to report this new information and did so as soon as athletics compliance staff became aware of the information. NCAA infractions procedures require that if this new information is deemed to be a Level I or Level II violation, the existing notice of allegations must be amended to include it even though they are unrelated to the prior allegations."
Under these circumstances, the University said it is delaying submitting its response to the current notice on the original Aug. 18 due date.
The NCAA will set a new response date following the supplemental review of the new information.
An additional review to address the issues could come within the next 60 days.
Afterwards, the NCAA enforcement staff would then decide whether its current notice of allegations needs to be amended.
Click here to read more about the new information
The 59-page notice of allegations from the NCAA enforcement staff detailed five alleged violations including impermissible benefits to student-athletes and interference by school officials in the investigation.
The notice detailed allegations made by former federal prosecutor Kenneth Wainstein - who UNC commissioned to re-investigate allegations of academic irregularities.
The more than 130-page report produced by Wainstein and his team uncovered 18 years of academic fraud at the school. It showed 3,100 students were enrolled in so-called paper classes, many of them were athletes. Those classes required little to no work. Over the span of almost two decades, the report showed student athletes were steered toward those classes to boost their grades and eligibility. The problems centered on the academic department formerly named African and Afro-American Studies.
