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A Carolina alum recently described the entire football situation to me as this:

“At first, when it was agents and money being taken, I took it as a “boys will be boys”  kind of thing. It’s happened at other places. When Yahoo started investigating and finding out that these guys were being handed grades—now you’ve embarrassed me.”

He’s right. Kids have taken benefits before. It happens everywhere. Couple hundred here. A thousand there. Excuse me for sounding trite but receiving money from agents is an old game. Granted, most of the guilty Carolina players had received upwards of SEVERAL thousand dollars, but the situation in Chapel Hill boiled over to much more.

Carolina opened itself up to a full investigation. They said their level of cooperation was unprecedented. Midway through this entire situation, we found out there was more. Much more. Cheating and academic fraud. Paying off traffic tickets. Carolina opened its own bag of worms in an attempt to appear cooperative. Initially, it backfired. And, by the time the investigation wrapped up, maybe Holden Thorpe and Co. felt as though the “initiative” would help them in the decision. It didn’t but but it may have been a blessing in disguise.

I haven’t read the final decision handed down by the NCAA. But while top UNC officials lament over how MUCH harsher the penalties are than their self-imposed ones, the end result won’t destroy the program. Most Carolina fans correctly believe that the punishments won’t affect football in the long run. 

There’s a one season bowl ban. The coach has already said he’d honor any senior transfers that leave. But in no way does that affect recruiting. 5 less scholarships for 3 years is a bigger deal, but it’s not something that can’t be overcome. If the coaching staff can sell the program’s future to a fewer number of BETTER recruits, they’ll be OK. The three-year probation will be the dark cloud that hangs over Chapel Hill, but a new diligence will resolve that.

All in all, THIS IS NOT THAT BAD. The Heels probably wouldn’t have gone to the ACC Championship next year regardless, and every other penalty is surmountable.

So what can we take away from it at this point?

When we look back years from now we can say that this was ultimately a disconnect of goals. I have no way of knowing what Butch Davis knew. I’d like to believe that he had to know something, but that is irrelevant at this point. At the end of the day, a few people at the University put football and personal objectives BEFORE the integrity of the school. They happened to do this at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Not Wilmington. Not Asheville. Not Charlotte. This situation put football success AHEAD of what makes that University so great. Excellence in education.

In my opinion, it was also a hasty, hap-hazard way of building a reputable football program at an established basketball school. That’s not an easy thing to do anywhere, no matter what your budget is. They hired a guy with a questionable history (Miami) and they recruited players that were talented but selfish. Skilled but short-sighted. Boys will be boys, but there are many programs around the country that are successful with the RIGHT players. 

This has to be a culture change at UNC. This situation has to inspire an academic-first philosophy, something that never should have been abandoned. Despite your football or basketball team’s success. Despite how deep the pockets of boosters and Rams’ Club members are.

If it does not inspire a culture change, they could be doomed to repeat their mistakes. This is a prideful university. But pride directed in the wrong way leads to a hard fall.