Nine UNC Starters Possibly Demoted to Scout Team for Academic Violations

I'll admit it; after the news that's been coming out of Columbia this week, I was relieved that any rule-breaking in Chapel Hill seemed relatively contained. Well, that's not exactly the case.

At a rather sudden press conference tonight that many hoped would produce the final results of this investigation, Dick Baddour instead announced a second investigation has been started on campus, this one led by UNC, into academic improprieties that first came to light during the investigation into agent contact. Baddour and Chancellor Thorp announced their full support for Davis, which will be rather necessary, as the misconduct centers on an undergraduate tutor for the team who also served as an academic coach for Davis's son. The investigation is ongoing and probably won't be finished before the LSU game.

That's it for the official word. The unofficial words are running rampant, however. Joe Schad has sources saying nine players have been kicked to the scout team over this, including Marvin Austin, Robert Quinn, and Bruce Carter. Other rumors had two players already kicked off the team, although since that was not mentioned at the press conference, I'm not particularly inclined to believe it.

So where does this leave UNC fans? The wolves are going to be baying around this program for the near future, and it's almost certain that the defense is going to be significantly weaker for the LSU game. Expect the rumors to only intensify as word leaks out about who exactly is practicing where; other than that, we're all in the same boat we were last week, just with a bigger cloud of impending doom over our heads. I expect all violations will be dealt with harshly, mostly because of Chancellor Thorp, and otherwise to expect a pretty agonzing couple of months.