Finally, a UNC football player wronged by UNC’s clumsy handling of a NCAA fishing expedition is going to court. But don’t expect much. North Carolina’s corrupt judicial system will likely close ranks to protect mother UNC and Chancellor Holden Thorp. It shouldn’t.
UNC permitted the NCAA — itself a morally bankrupt institution, as its unwillingness to punish cash-cows Ohio State and Auburn demonstrates even to little children — to wreck the lives of UNC student-athletes on nothing more than whim. In the case of Michael McAdoo, the NCAA ignored UNC Honor Court findings to ban McAdoo from further play for UNC. The NCAA did essentially the same thing to Devon Ramsay. But Ramsay hired Bob Orr to press the NCAA and UNC for re-instatement and Ramsay got it without going to court.
The Ramsay reversal alone should have prompted Thorp to resign — as well as AD Dick Baddour, who rode shotrun on this mess. Throughout the ordeal Thorp and Baddour have cowered before the NCAA, pledging to “cooperate” — which meant treating every NCAA allegation as proven fact while defaming former UNC tutor Jennifer Wiley along the way. I have to believe that Wiley has already been quietly paid off — or else she too has a lawsuit against UNC in her future.
You watch, if and when the NCAA smacks UNC hard later this year with sanctions, then and only then will UNC alums wake up and realize that Thorp has been a disaster as chancellor. Let’s just hope that Thorp does not fall for another fake campus gay bashing claim between now and then.
