What does the third Notice of Allegations mean for UNC?

The investigation into UNC’s academic and athletic scandal took an unprecedented turn this week when the NCAA issued yet a third Notice of Allegations, which amended the second NOA, which had amended the original NOA. This latest notice won’t be released by Carolina until later this week, but it apparently reinstated several specifics that had been removed from the second NOA.

This has become a legal fight extraordinaire. UNC has already spent millions of dollars contracting a law firm from Chicago to dissect the NCAA charges and respond, sometimes aggressively, to the allegations. The latest conjecture is that the NCAA felt backed into a corner and could not mete out any penalties that did not carry specific charges. So when Carolina basically challenged their jurisdiction on certain academic matters by saying the whole shebang might end up in court, the NCAA came back swinging with its own legal interpretation.

The new NOA resets the clock, giving UNC 90 days to respond and then giving the NCAA another 60 days to respond to the response. If this seems like it may never end, it indeed may never end. Neither side wants to go to court because of what new information might come out once witnesses are subpoenaed and further Pandora’s boxes are opened. But Carolina may just go ahead and sue the NCAA on the grounds that it has already suffered death by inertia over the last four years, among other things.

Settlement offers have been exchanged, but during an October meeting with the NCAA Carolina was sucker punched by this latest reversal. The university may feel that the governing body of college athletics has gone so far off the reservation in violating its own bylaws that the courts will ultimately decide what is just.

At this point, there are no answers as the lawyers and athletic department officials plan their next move. You will hear speculation from bad news for UNC to the NCAA has no case. Don’t believe any of it for the time being. Let’s just wait and see what plays out.

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