Will the Wainstein Report ever go away? Not looking like it.

For the media and all those ABC fans, the Wainstein Report is the gift that keeps on giving. That one last independent probe into the academic scandal, which the Board of Governors and Chancellor believed we needed, traded transparency for protection of the university’s image and brand. Needless, I say, because what was broken had already been fixed.

Beyond the 131-page document that was bound neatly, released to the media and sent off the to the NCAA, which re-opened its investigation, were more than 1200 pages of interviews conducted that are still public documents being sought by the News and Observer and other public records requestors. Bubba Cunningham said Friday that those are related to millions of other documents, presumably mostly emails, that the university has to pour through in order to respond accurately to the NCAA’s Notice of Allegations.

Something else has been uncovered pertaining to women’s basketball, so who’s to say more of the same won’t be found by everyone looking, reading and requesting? The latest glitch could prolong the official response well into the new year, hurting recruiting further. And if anything else comes out, the vicious cycle will continue, although Cunningham is hopeful the NCAA will adjudicate this thing by the spring. That, of course, won’t keep the media and enemies from looking for and finding more embarrassing and potentially damaging information.

Before Wainstein, the university and NCAA had exchanged letters saying, “Thank you, three-year probation served, and investigation closed.” That is where it should have ended before another $3.5 million was spent and more questions were raised from those answered by the report. All the internal audits and reviews UNC wanted or needed could have kept on going to make sure the right classes were being taught in the right way by the right professors.

But that last little bit of transparency blew the case wide open again when, in my opinion, it was the last thing Carolina ever should have done to protect itself from further damage. Now, where it all ends nobody knows.

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