Evidence of more potential NCAA violations in women’s basketball surface at North Carolina

During the process of preparing a response to the NCAA for longstanding allegations of academic fraud, North Carolina reports that it has discovered more evidence of violations.

UNC’s athletic director Lawrence Cunningham said the school uncovered “additional examples of possible instances of improper academic assistance provided to a few former women’s basketball players” and evidence of recruiting violations in men’s soccer.

The school is already under fire for “lack of institutional control” stemming from 18 years of student-athletes, including several women’s basketball players, taking fake classes. The NCAA sent a 59-page notice of allegations detailing the violations in late spring. The university is still preparing a response to the allegations, initially due next week. As a result of this new information, the response will be delayed.

“I know today’s announcement will cause some to ask when all of this will end,” Cunningham said. “I want to assure everyone that Carolina is doing all it can to bring these matters to closure as quickly as possible while also strictly adhering to the NCAA’s infractions process. While we need to address these new developments, we have already completed the majority of the work necessary to respond to the NCAA’s notice. We fully believe that we will be able to bring the investigation to a conclusion in spring 2016, as previously anticipated.”

While no coaches were named in the notice of allegations released earlier, the majority of the violations occurred in the women’s basketball, men’s basketball and football programs.

In the wake of the scandal, all four members of UNC’s top-ranked women’s basketball incoming class of 2013 have transferred:

• Diamond DeShields (Tennessee)
• Jessica Washington (Kansas)
• Allisha Gray (South Carolina)
• Stephanie Mavunga (Ohio State)

Guard Allisha Gray indicated that the scandal played into her decision to transfer.