NCAA Announces Suspensions for Kendric Burney and Deunta Williams

The NCAA is slowly making its way through the various allegations of wrongdoing circling the UNC program, and has announced the rulebreaking and penalties for two of the Tar Heel cornerbacks. Kendric Burney has been suspended for six games for receiving $1,333 in illicit benefits, primarily trips to California, Atlanta and Las Vegas. Deunta Williams will be out four games as punishment for taking $1,426 in benefits, for two trips to California. It appears Burney has the more severe punishment because he received his goodies from "an individual who meets the NCAA definition of an agent," while Williams' were merely "preferential treatment violations associated with visiting a former North Carolina football student-athlete."

In a later interview with the N&O, Dick Baddour said he did not have permission to release the former athlete's name, but that "he's a former defensive back, and they established a relationship. He's in sales out in California, and he encouraged the guys to come out, because he wanted to be supportive ... but he doesn't have the resources to pay for anybody's expenses out there." This logical inference would be that this was Chris Hawkins, who played defensive back for three years at UNC and was mentioned in a tweet by Burney when he was out in Vegas. There hasn't been any mention Hawkins residing out in California, however; he has a Miami area code cell phone and supposedly resides in South Carolina. Note also that Kentwan Balmer was with the 49ers at the time these trips would have occurred, and is already implicated in paying for trips for Marvin Austin and Cam Thomas. Balmer, obviously, is not in sales. Baddour has said that Williams and Burney were the only two players to be flown out by this mysterious former defensive back.

UNC will appeal both suspensions, but barring some sort of reversal, Williams will be eligible to play in the next ACC game against Clemson, while Burney will return against Miami on October 23rd.