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NCAA initiates UNC football investigation

Posted on July 23, 2010 by Taylor Sisk

By Taylor Sisk
Staff Writer

CHAPEL HILL – The National Collegiate Athletic Association has begun an investigation into possible rules violations by one or more members of the UNC football team.

Last Thursday, UNC athletics director Dick Baddour confirmed that the NCAA had been to campus to speak with members of the program, but provided no further details. It has since been reported that at least two players, defensive tackle Marvin Austin and wide receiver Greg Little, both considered to be likely high NFL draft selections, were questioned about whether they had been in contact with sports agents in violation of NCAA rules.

The NCAA is asking whether players may have received assistance with travel expenses or rent or been given jewelry. Costs associated with a spring trip to South Beach are believed to be among the expenses in question. Austin made comments about that vacation on his Twitter page.

NCAA officials also have questioned South Carolina tight end Weslye Saunders of Durham, who reportedly spent time with Austin and Little in the spring. That investigation reportedly concerns travel expenses.

The investigations come at a time in which the NCAA appears to be stepping up enforcement of rules concerning student-athletes’ contact with agents. The NCAA’s director of agent, gambling and amateurism activities Rachel Newman-Baker told Sports Illustrated’s SI.com, “I think people are tired of watching the abuses taking place in this area.”

Players are allowed to have contact with agents after their junior years but aren’t allowed to receive money or gifts or to commit to signing with an agent. Players found to have received unauthorized benefits or to have violated rules regarding contact with agents, or to have lied to investigators, can be suspended for some or all of the upcoming season.

Athletic programs found to be in violation can be forced to return money gained in championship runs, banned from postseason play for a given time period and required to reduce the number of scholarships they offer.

As for agents who make unauthorized contact: In 2003, the North Carolina legislature passed the Uniform Athlete Agents Act, which makes it a Class 1 felony for an agent to, among other things, “[f]urnish anything of value to a student-athlete before the student-athlete enters into the agency contract.” No one has yet been prosecuted under the statute.

The UNC athletics department has pledged its full cooperation in the investigation.

“I’m going to do exactly what they ask me to do,” Baddour said last Thursday. “We work hard in doing things the right way.”

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