Former North Carolina defensive end Michael McAdoo, who was deemed permanently ineligible by the NCAA in November, filed a lawsuit against Chancellor Holden Thorp, the University and the NCAA on Friday in an attempt to have his eligibility reinstated.
The lawsuit claims that McAdoo “was improperly and unjustly declared permanently ineligible to play intercollegiate athletics.”
McAdoo was suspended by the University for the first three games of the 2010 football season after officials found that he had received extra benefits, valued at $110.
On Nov. 12, the NCAA declared McAdoo permanently ineligible, citing that he accepted impermissible academic benefits on multiple occasions during three different academic terms.
UNC self-reported the violations to the NCAA in September, and according to a letter written to the NCAA by Athletic Director Dick Baddour, the University claimed that McAdoo wasn’t aware at the time that the academic assistance he received was impermissible.
The UNC Honor Court only found McAdoo guilty of one academic violation, according to documents included in the lawsuit. And on Oct. 14, the Honor Court found McAdoo guilty of “representing another’s work as his own” with respect to an assignment in a Swahili class he took in July 2009.
The Honor Court ruled that McAdoo could play football again in the fall of 2011.
UNC appealed the NCAA’s decision, but after a hearing in December, the NCAA upheld its decision about McAdoo’s eligibility on Jan. 27.
McAdoo’s lawyers sent a letter to the NCAA on June 3, claiming the organization failed to consider important information in the hearing, but they did not receive a response.
