Photo by Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images(CHAPEL HILL, N.C.) — The NCAA has amended its notice of allegations against the University of North Carolina, which could have significant consequences for the school’s men’s basketball team.
The new allegations, ESPN reportsd, include a charge of extra benefits provided to athletes, including the men’s basketball team, between 2002 and 2011. The Tar Heels won an NCAA Championship in 2005, and if players on that team were deemed ineligible for having received extra benefits, the organization could levy punishments against the school, including possibly vacating that title.
The NCAA claims that the fake courses the school is alleged to have offered to student-athletes constitute extra benefits, “because the university used its relationship with two African-American studies professors to ‘obtain and/or provide special arrangements to student-athletes,'” ESPN says.
Players, including members of the football and men’s basketball team used those courses, the NCAA says, to ensure their continued academic eligibility.
UNC Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham claimed on a conference call Thursday morning that the NCAA is operating outside of its own bylaws. “You can’t chase things because you have an opinion,” Cunningham said. “We’ve seen recently the NCAA has chased after some other schools and went outside their own process and that hasn’t worked out very well.”
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