UNC football investigation can serve as a lesson for other universities

Nine days before NCAA investigators e-mailed the University to say they would be coming to campus, senior associate athletic director Larry Gallo warned the athletic staff to “be careful out there.”

Gallo told members of the athletic department to use the NCAA’s ruling on the University of Southern California as a learning tool just more than a week before the NCAA launched the investigation.

Now, four months later, UNC has become that learning tool for other institutions.

“I believe that all of us associated with intercollegiate athletics throughout this country can use this event as a teachable moment,” Gallo said in the June 12 e-mail. “There is absolutely no question that this ruling by the NCAA has sent a loud and clear message to all of its membership ~ and that was exactly the intent.

“Am I inferring that in today’s ‘arm race climate’ of intercollegiate athletics that the lack of institutional control and blatant rules violation allow the NCAA to make an example of an institution? Unfortunately, I am!”

Gallo said he had no foresight about the impending investigation, but the friendly e-mail-turned-omen shows that anything can happen anywhere.

“I never thought it would happen (here),” Gallo said, “But I’m also going to quickly say that we’re all vulnerable to anything happening. I’m not going to live in this fantasy world.”

Copied into the e-mail is a story by SI.com titled, “High-profile players merit high-profile enforcement.”

“Given the magnitude of the players, that should have been on our radar more,” athletic director Dick Baddour said.

“We should have acknowledged the level that these guys are and that there would be people coming at them.”

Baddour and football coach Butch Davis reiterated in a news conference Monday that the program has implemented policies to monitor where athletes go and with whom they associate.

Davis said he and his staff will now require players to sign out when they leave campus for holidays and vacations. They have also passed out more material regarding relationships with agents and improper benefits.

Doug Archie, associate athletic director for compliance at the Ohio State University, said the school uses some of the same measures that UNC has in place. Like UNC, OSU has an agent day in the spring where players and parents can talk with agents and former players to better understand the rules.

At the beginning of August, Archie said his office met with student-athletes from all sports to highlight the NCAA rules on improper benefits and impermissible acts in light of the NCAA’s investigation into UNC.

“It’s unfortunate any time a student-athlete stumbles, but they are great educational moments,” Archie said. “We hate to learn from someone else’s mistakes, but when they do happen, we use them to educate.”

North Carolina State athletic director Debbie Yow has looked at the systems her athletic programs have in place since she came to the school this summer. Annabelle Myers, associate athletic director for media relations, said Yow has used other NCAA rulings for guidance.

“Since she’s come in, she’s been examining all our policies, systems and controls of checks and balances,” Meyer said. “And not in light of just what’s going on at Carolina, but just because it’s the appropriate thing.”

Oklahoma State University dismissed former wide receiver Dez Bryant during his senior year when he lied to NCAA investigators about his friendship with former NFL player Deion Sanders.

The ruling was a preemptive move by the school in anticipation of the NCAA’s ruling, similar to Austin’s situation.

“If I would have known what got them off track, I would have loved to have been a part of getting them back on track,” Davis said. “We tell our players over and over and over about be honest, tell the truth, do the right things.”

According to NCAA bylaw 10.1-d, it is considered unethical conduct if a player knowingly furnishes the NCAA false information about possible NCAA rules violations.

“It’s particularly disappointing because at the very beginning of this process, Coach Davis, myself and all of the compliance people were in front of our student-athletes driving home the message of how important it is to be honest, forthright, and that you give us an opportunity to help you,” Baddour said.

Baddour said UNC’s compliance department was doing “more than significant things” to protect the University and student-athletes before the investigation began, but he also realized the shortcomings.

Despite all the preventative measures in place by UNC — agent day, educational material and previous NCAA rulings — the University has now become an example.

“Somebody asked a week ago, ‘If you were on the outside looking in, what would you make of this situation?’” Davis said. “You’d use it as a great learning experience. This will provide a tremendous platform for us to educate kids in the recruiting class for next year and the kids that are currently on the football team.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.