The University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill appeared to be within sight of the end of their academic scandal, but a new development may delay the long-awaited resolution further.
According to The Washington Post, UNC - Chapel Hill officials found evidence of new violations as they were preparing their formal response to the NCAA's Notice of Allegations. Now, the school's response will include reports of these new findings and could months to the process on the whole.
"We identified this new information as part of our due diligence in preparing our response to the notice of allegations and materials for public release," Bubba Cunningham, UNC's athletic director, said in a statement. "Consistent with NCAA process, we promptly notified the NCAA's enforcement staff. We continue to work cooperatively and expeditiously with the enforcement staff to complete our review, and we are confident this can be done quickly to allow the NCAA to bring closure to the investigation."
UNC found their women's basketball team to have committed infractions similar to the ones the NCAA charged them with, which is academic misconduct. Like the men's basketball and football teams, some women's basketball players were found to have been provided "improper academic assistance."
However, the second instance of new violations was unrelated to the NCAA's Notice and involved the men's soccer team using impermissible recruiting tactics over the past two years.
Of the five allegations the NCAA charged UNC with, four were Level 1, including the dreaded "lack of institutional control." UNC was on the brink of filing their response when they self-reported the new violations.
The NCAA could take up to five months to decide whether or not to send UNC an updated Notice of Allegations to include the new violations, USA Today reported.
In its statement, UNC noted the newly self-reported violations would go up on their Carolina Commitment website. There the school initially posted the report from Kenneth Wainstein detailing the two decades of false classes attended mostly by student-athletes trying to remain academically eligible for their respective sport.
"There is no question this has been a long and challenging process, and it is one we are committed to finishing as we started - by cooperating fully with the NCAA, adhering to obligations under the NCAA's rules," Cunningham said, "and working tirelessly to secure a fair and just outcome for Carolina."
