Maybe they’ve run out of Sharpies at UNC.

You know, the thick black markers used when names and other private information are redacted from documents before they are released to the public.

Why else would it be taking Carol Folt and Bubba Cunningham so long to release a “publishable” version of the NOA to the news media and public? Could they be waiting for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) to reaffirm their accreditation next week before Carolina decides which charges to refute?

This thing is shut down tighter than it would be at Duke, which is almost the Nixon Whitehouse of non-disclosure. But Duke is private and, as seen from Lance Thomas to Rasheed Sulaimon, doesn’t have to say anything or give anything to anyone (and they probably laugh about it behind our backs).

Larry Fedora and Roy Williams, if they know what’s in the NOA applying to them, are playing it closer to the vest than two poker sharks. But both have undoubtedly heard the news reports that neither of their programs was cited for violations in the NOA. Both say they haven’t seen the document, and I believe that. Both say they don’t know what’s in it about them.

Yeah, right.

They appeared at the annual Carolina Kids Classic golf tournament yesterday at Finley (which raised $113,000 for UNC Hospitals, by the way), sitting ducks for the media that brought in their satellite trucks and tape recorders to corner the coaches as they came off the golf course. Frankly, both seemed a lot looser than worried.

Fedora said he was “very confident about it. . . I don’t anticipate any problems.” Williams dodged 20 questions but was smiling more than we’ve seen him smile in a long while.

Numerous sources have confirmed that whatever allegations are in the notice, none apply to football and men’s basketball. Some Olympic sports might have gotten hit and, almost certainly, the university is being charged with the dreaded “lack of institutional control.” But the complexities of this case may be one reason for the long delay in releasing the NOA.

The NCAA has made it clear, from its official bylaws to statements from President Mark Emmert, that what UNC was investigated for and what Syracuse got penalized for are apples and oranges (no pun intended). And those who try to predict Carolina’s consequences based on Syracuse’s sanctions are wasting their time.

Violations against Coach Jim Boeheim and his program go right into the basketball office, where assistant coaches and other staff took part in the cheating and impermissible benefits for players. That, of course, is in the purview of the NCAA, whose job it is to make sure schools don’t violate rules outlined in its manual. What however many Tar Heel athletes did is not in their purview.

And it makes perfect sense. If the NCAA tried to police athletes taking easy classes amongst the general student body, it would need investigators on every campus in the country every day of the school year.

In UNC’s case, the NCAA investigated if any of the athletes got grades without doing ANY work or if they cheated to get grades that would keep them eligible. Some of the courses in question were so easy, why would anyone have to cheat? Or ask a tutor to do the work for them?

So when the NOA does come out, the ABC crowd will go bonkers. But once again, offering easy courses and giving out high grades is not the business of the NCAA as long as said courses were ministered by academic departments on campus and the work was done. And who of us hasn’t looked for crip courses and found some real doozies?

So you can say Tar Heel football and men’s basketball got lucky. But also say that the snail’s pace with which the NCAA moved has already cost both sports numerous recruiting losses, kids headed for Chapel Hill who went elsewhere because of all the uncertainty.

UNC has promised a vigorous defense of any allegations and could catch the NCAA in a contradiction. If athletes taking easy courses aren’t their business, how can the university offering them be? Leave that to the accreditation committee.

There may be other alleged violations, and UNC could get slapped for those. But, as far as Fedora and Williams being able to go into recruits’ homes moving forward and saying “we’re in the clear,” that’s a done deal.

Now if the administration could only find more Sharpies.