More proof that our probation was a vendetta...

[RebStang]

I can perhaps shed a little more light on David Saunders than someone totally on the outside would know because I'm from Mississippi and my other school is one of Saunders' former employers (Ole Miss actually reported his academic fraud scheme to the NCAA a couple years ago when they found out about him trying to fix kids' ACT scores).

Ed Orgeron (may he catch some coonass plague and lose what little ability to speak English he possesses) initially hired David Saunders in 2006 but he was run off almost immediately after the 2006 season. Saunders is a mediocre, at best, coach but his biggest selling point was that he knew how to get recruits eligible... unfortunately, Ole Miss figured out quickly that his "secret" to getting kids eligible was little more that academic fraud and he was allowed to leave quietly.

Post Ole Miss, he was placed in charge of a corporate sponsored plan in Mississippi to help Mississippi athletes get eligible and improve their academic performance. That lasted a couple years and he got some fairly big name players eligible (Deandre Brown from USM is one example) through some seriously shady methods. His favored method for getting a kid eligible was to find a friendly doctor and get the kid diagnosed with severe learning disabilities which would allow the kid to take the ACT untimed (and he was already using that proctor in Waynesboro, MS then) along with basically taking a bunch of online classes to replace classes from their real high school.

Then, in 2010, Houston Nutt in his "heppin people" wisdom decided to try to hire him back at Ole Miss in an administrative role. It wasn't long before he started trying to interfere on the academic side of things and the AD at the time fired his [deleted] quickly. Nutt pulled some strings and the AD was forced to hire him back but to keep him away, he only offered him $9 an hour. Saunders refused that generous offer.

I've also been told by people that would know that Ole Miss actually reached out to ULL and told them about his shady academic antics.

So, really, it's entirely nonsensical to think that ULL hired him and had no idea about his shady academic fraud schemes. In fact, the reality is that the only reason you would hire him is to take advantage of his "eligiblity plan".

[Stallion]

Its pretty common for kids with learning disabilities to get reasonable accommodations such as an untimed exam or a proctor for reading questions. Its not only reasonable its the law

[RebStang]

Its pretty common for kids with learning disabilities to get reasonable accommodations such as an untimed exam or a proctor for reading questions. Its not only reasonable its the law

That's true... and that's how he avoided getting hammered for academic fraud while he was still working in Mississippi.

However, you have to really suspend your disbelief to believe that quite literally every potential non-qualifier with an FBS offer in football or Division 1 basketball offer from Mississippi during his time running that program had a learning disability because every one of them got diagnosed with one. Now, I'm a big fan of the Law of Large Numbers but even I find that extremely improbable.

[2ndandlong]

Interesting insight. Anxious to see what, if any, history makes it into the actual NCAA report.

[smusportspage]

Why was the NCAA not on UNC? Why did it take so long for this to come to light? If it they had been on UNC like they have been on SMU for the last 40 years they would have known. NCAA has been too busy grabassing the SMU's and North Dakota State University for the Blinds to take notice of schools like UNC. You can just follow the money on this one.

[Dukie]

Things to keep in mind on UNC:
-[deleted]
-early reports show that NO NCAAM student-athlete received preferential treatment; although, NCAAW, NCAAF and other student athletes were linked to preferential treatment. This likely means institutional control without a specific focus on the basketball program (i.e. no head coach suspension, no vacated wins, no scholarships or recruiting restrictions, and possibly no post-season ban in men's basketball).

This statement is horrendously wrong. Early reports indicate that WBB, FB, WSOC, MBB and other sports are all implicated. It would have been true for you to say that individual WBB and FB players receiving improper benefits have been publicly identified, while no individual MBB players have been named publicly. But the MBB program is absolutely implicated.

You say it's horrendously wrong and then acknowledge that no NCAAM players have been named; whereas, student athletes have been named in other sports. I don't see that as being horrendously wrong.

The 59 page notice of allegations implicates NCAAM but it is significantly more circumstantial than what is alleged about other sports. For NCAAM, here are a handful of examples: Boxill providing syllabus for her class to academic counselor. Boxill providing assignment to academic counselor. Boxill providing reports of poor academic performance to academic counselor. Boxill provided grades to academic counselor. None of this is explicitly a violation.

Here's an exact quote from the report regarding men's football:
Email from Crowder to Holliday. This includes, but is not limited to, Crowder mentioning that she would change a football student athlete's grade once he turns in a paper.

And for multiple sports but not MBB, there are several incidences I found of individuals in athletics turning in papers, quote, "delivering a student-athlete's paper to Crowder."

There is no doubt of lack of institutional control which will be levied against the university. The sport specific penalties will be significantly harsher against other sports, and this easily gives the NCAA the ability to go easy on UNC MBB.

Would you like to tell us again how nothing about UNC MBB has been implicated?

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/ ... 62627.html

Key excerpt: "[Players who exceeded the limit of independent study classes] presumably would include Rashad McCants, whose transcript shows he took nothing but fake classes in the semester during the [2005] championship run."

[RI Stang]

"During the 2004-05 national title season, records show the team accounted for 35 enrollments in fake classes."

But ol' Roy just told us how proud he was that the men's basketball team had nothing to do with it? Emert and the NCAA are having a hard time figuring out a way to wiggle out of this with a slap on the wrist, but sadly I'm confident they'll come up with something...

[DiamondM]

-early reports show that NO NCAAM student-athlete received preferential treatment; although, NCAAW, NCAAF and other student athletes were linked to preferential treatment. This likely means institutional control without a specific focus on the basketball program (i.e. no head coach suspension, no vacated wins, no scholarships or recruiting restrictions, and possibly no post-season ban in men's basketball).

Uh, Rashad McCants was the main whistleblower. http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/11036924/former-north-carolina-basketball-star-rashad-mccants-says-took-sham-classes

[Puckhead48E]

UNC has been traced back to the last Dean Smith championship...to suggest MBB is not implicated buys into the whitewash the NCAA has attempted to perpetuate since this first came to light.

I pointed out that the NCAA attempted to put this entire ordeal behind them before the suit and publicity forced them to reopen the investigation. This is of utmost importance because, with the ample evidence that has been reported in the press from investigations, the NCAA is implicated in this fraud as well. They supported it by covering it up...omission is commission in this case. That also shows that they will likely do little to nothing to MBB and probably football when this all eventually pans out. You know they are going to pin this on their women's sports (including their only truly national powerhouse program over an extended period of time, women's soccer) when UNC self-reported more violations in women's sports before the initial findings were to be released right before March hit. They hope UNC wins it all, they can slap them on the wrist, and everyone will be happy.