Tracking a Scandal

June 2010: The NCAA and UNC begin an investigation into improper benefits given to UNC football players.

July 15, 2010: Media organizations, including ESPN and the News & Observer, first report that the NCAA investigation is under way.

Aug. 26, 2010: UNC officials announce at a press conference that football players got improper academic help from a tutor later identified as Jennifer Wiley.

Sept. 5, 2010: Associate head coach John Blake resigns.

Sept. 24, 2010: Football players Kendric Burney and Deunta Williams are temporarily suspended by the NCAA. UNC appeals the rulings, saying they are too harsh.

Oct. 11, 2010: UNC announces that it is dismissing Marvin Austin from the football team. The NCAA rules Greg Little and Robert Quinn permanently ineligible to play collegiate football. The University says it will honor the three players’ scholarships because they had not committed any academic infractions.

Oct. 14, 2010: UNC Honor Court finds Michael McAdoo guilty of receiving too much help from a tutor on an AFAM 404 paper, a class taught by Julius Nyang’oro, and rules that he should ineligible to play football again until fall 2011.

Oct. 28, 2010: The Daily Tar Heel and seven other media organizations file a lawsuit against the University seeking access to public records related to the NCAA investigation.

Nov. 16, 2010: Football players Devon Ramsay and McAdoo are ruled permanently ineligible by the NCAA. UNC officials say they will appeal the rulings.

April 19, 2011: A Wake County Superior Court judge ordered UNC to release records related to the NCAA investigation, including phone records and football players’ parking tickets.

June 21, 2011: The NCAA sends a notice of nine major allegations to UNC, including Blake’s employment by a professional sports agent.

July 1, 2011: McAdoo files a lawsuit against the NCAA and the University, seeking reinstatement to the football team.

July 13, 2011: A website covering N.C. State athletics, PackPride.com, uncovers extensive plagiarism in the term paper for which McAdoo was suspended by the UNC Honor Court.

July 27, 2011: Head football coach Butch Davis is fired as a result of the NCAA investigation. Davis had not been implicated in the NCAA’s notice of allegations.

July 28, 2011: Athletic Director Dick Baddour announces his retirement.

Aug. 21, 2011: The News & Observer receives a partial transcript for Marvin Austin that reveals he took a 400-level class with Nyang’oro before taking English 100, Basic Writing.

Aug. 30, 2011: Nyang’oro resigns as chair of the Department of African and Afro-American Studies, but remains as a professor.

Sept. 2, 2011: UNC commences internal review of the Department of African and Afro-American Studies.

Sept. 19, 2011: The University releases its 111-page response to the NCAA allegations, which revealed additional details of Wiley’s improper academic assistance to UNC football players.

Oct. 19, 2011: Bubba Cunningham hired as athletic director.

Oct. 28, 2011: The NCAA Committee on Infractions holds a closed hearing on the nine allegations against UNC’s football team.

Dec. 9, 2011: Larry Fedora approved as new head football coach.

March 12, 2012: The NCAA imposes additional sanctions, including scholarship reductions and a one-year postseason ban.

May 4, 2012: UNC releases a report on its investigation into the Department of African and Afro-American Studies that implicates Nyang’oro and former department administrator Deborah Crowder in setting up aberrant or irregularly taught classes. The report reveals that 58 percent of enrolled students in the suspect classes were athletes.

May 14, 2012: The State Bureau of Investigation begins investigating the Department of African and Afro-American Studies.

June 11, 2012: The University takes back $12,000 from Nyang’oro for a class he taught in the summer of 2011 made up entirely of former or current football players.

July 1, 2012: Nyang’oro retires.

July 19, 2012: A second hearing in the public records suit against UNC is held in Raleigh. The plaintiffs seek Butch Davis’ personal phone records and documents submitted to the NCAA.

July 20, 2012: The UNC-system Board of Governors panel meets for the first time to review UNC’s review of the Department of African and Afro-American Studies.