Just when you think it could not get any crazier…

Did you hear the latest college football scandal, right down the road at little ol’ Wake Forest? A former assistant coach for the Deacons, since then working as a radio announcer for the school after not being retained by the new head coach, has been feeding intimate information about Wake’s game preparation to opposing teams.

An investigation by the Wake Forest Athletic Department following the Deacs’ November 12 visit to Louisville found that someone named Tommy Elrod has provided or attempted to provide confidential game plan info to the opposition since 2014. Apparently, Elrod has been doing a worse job of it this season than the last two. The Deacons finished 6-6 and are going to a bowl game for the first time since 2011.

The scandal broke after Wake’s 44-12 loss to the nationally ranked Cardinals. It must have been fourth-quarter poop that was wiki-leaked because Louisville trailed in that game 12-10 after three quarters before scoring 34 unanswered points in the fourth period.

Elrod served as the Wake Forest color man on the IMG Radio Network beginning in 2014, and has been terminated immediately from his position at IMG. Well, that’s a surprise.

Wake AD Ron Wellman and football coach Dave Clawson both issued statements saying Elrod was off the radio broadcast of the upcoming Military Bowl game against Temple and banned from department facilities; he reportedly has to turn in his old keys to the coaching files. Word is also on the street that the Owls are trying to hire Elrod as a scout. And ESPN is considering him as an analyst.

Seriously, how and why could this happen? Elrod was no longer a coach, so how did he get the material in the first place? Why would he do it? So he could bet for or against the Deacons to cover the point spread? Are Wake games even on the betting line from Vegas? Will every loss over the last two years now be expunged from the Deacons’ record and every opponent be under a new four-year investigation by the NCAA?

What is college football coming to?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Related Stories
‹
Chansky's Notebook: Fool Me Once...
Little Kool-Aid will be consumed by Carolina fans before the noon kickoff from Dublin. Fool me once but not again. It is a great trip to Ireland for the Tar Heels fans who bought the plane tickets and hotel rooms to tour the Emerald Isle and see if their team is any better than Bill […]
Chansky's Notebook: Getting Filthy Rich-er
There are seven teams with $40 million plus rosters and five others just behind the tally from college football as the 2026 season begins. The SEC leads payrolls (LSU, Texas, Texas A&M, Georgia, Ole Miss and Tennessee), with four from the Big Ten (Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan and USC), one from the ACC (Miami) and […]
Chansky's Notebook: Power to the People!
Wednesday's announcement of a two-year, two-game series between UNC and NC State in Greensboro sent a clear message.
Chansky's Notebook: The Five Stages
Chapelboro's Michael Koh breaks down the stunning news of Seth Trimble's commitment to Louisville via the transfer portal.
Chansky's Notebook: Carolina Conundrum
There is no question Mike Lombardi will lose his job as football general manager and leave Chapel Hill, writes Art Chansky.
Chansky's Notebook: The One Who Got Away
Mack Brown was a very good football coach. His father was a high school coach in Tennessee, and his older brother Watson preceded him into mid-major positions. The peripatetic Brown held nine assistant jobs and one as a head coach in 15 years before he was 35. That included being the athletic director at Tulane […]
Chansky's Notebook: The Cost of Business
Carolina has released its salary structure for the 2026-27 men’s basketball season, and right now it has to be a game of wait and see. Mike Malone is making $7.5 million in his first college head coaching season and his new top assistant Chuck Martin is making $500,000. Here is where it gets interesting. The […]
Chansky's Notebook: Code of Conduct
When he left Carolina as chancellor in 2024, Kevin Guskiewicz was dogged by policy confrontations with the UNC Board of Trustees. Guskiewicz found himself in the same position after only two years at Michigan State despite strong support from Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Spartans’ Hall of Fame basketball coach Tom Izzo. He visited […]
Chansky's Notebook: What Happened to Henri?
Blame Henri Veesaar's baffling slide in the NBA Draft on the muddled way the league and its agents do business.
Chansky's Notebook: Dunia the Great
Of all the athletes who competed at Carolina over the years, there is no one in the same ballpark as Dunia Sibomana-Rodriguez. His life-changing moment occurred when he was six years old and survived an attack from vicious chimpanzees in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo. The 18-year-old UNC prodigy who is on a […]
›