North Carolina Tar Heels: NCAA is wrong even when right

On Thursday afternoon, the NCAA ruled that North Carolina Tar Heels athlete Devontez ‘Tez’ Walker is eligible immediately, but not without controversy.

Ah, finally!

Wide receiver Tez Walker is eligible for the UNC football program at last, and that is the most important thing of all this. However, the NCAA just couldn’t announce the good news without taking another jab at the North Carolina Tar Heels athletic department.

As a reminder, here is the full statement from NCAA President Charlie Baker and Division I Board of Directors chair Jere Moorehead, who is the president of the University of Georgia.

"NCAA staff received new information regarding University of North Carolina student-athlete Tez Walker this week. Staff determined the new information qualifies Walker for a transfer waiver. The information had not been made available by UNC previously, despite the school’s multiple chances to do so.“It is unfortunate that UNC failed to provide this important information previously. While we must be careful not to compromise a student-athlete’s right to privacy when it comes to sensitive issues, we want to assure the Division I membership and everyone watching how the new transfer rules are applied, that this meets the new transfer waiver standards. UNC’s behavior and decision to wage a public relations campaign is inappropriate and outside the bounds of the process UNC’s own staff supported. Had the UNC staff not behaved in this fashion and submitted this information weeks ago, this entire unfortunate episode could have been avoided.”"

This has been an absolute mess since this began publicly in early August. We’ve had the North Carolina athletic department putting the NCAA on notice publicly and then the NCAA firing back, saying the Tar Heels are wrong. So, let’s break down the last response from the NCAA declaring Walker eligible.

In the first paragraph, they state that the North Carolina Tar Heels failed to provide all of the information. So they expect us to believe that the UNC Football program has been fighting for MONTHS for Walker’s eligibility and just left out a key piece of information that could’ve made him eligible all along? In no world does that make sense, nor should they expect us to believe that.

Like the entire process, North Carolina Tar Heels Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham didn’t hesitate to respond to the NCAA’s comments about “new information.”

Cunningham’s response was a classic as he basically said, “What new information?” We still don’t know what the “new information” is other than we can speculate the impact of North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein threatening the NCAA with an anti-trust lawsuit and potential investigation. This shows the NCAA is just continuing to lie about the entire case, and the moment the words “we’re going to sue you” were uttered, they rolled over and played dead.

In the quote from Charlie Baker and Jere Morehead, they point out that they want to ensure everyone watching how the new transfer rules are applied. What I gathered from this is they were ultimately trying to make an example out of North Carolina and the UNC football program just because they could. This is totally wrong because it is at the expense of a kid, Tez Walker, who deserves the right to play college football, and they took four games away from him as a result. As Mack Brown said in his initial response when Walker was ruled ineligible in early September, SHAME ON YOU, NCAA!

And lastly, they blamed the Tar Heels’ behavior and public relations campaign for all of this. If the NCAA had done the right thing, to begin with, North Carolina would have never had to go public with this case; however, the only way that the athletic department saw fit to bring the spotlight to the case and the wrongdoing of Walker was to issue a public statement. Ultimately, the public relations campaign worked and put pressure on the NCAA – it just took way too long.

Also, can we talk about how the NCAA doesn’t comment on specific and individual cases? We’ve heard this line from the NCAA for years now, but this is now the second time they have commented on Tez Walker’s case. Both times, throwing punches at the University of North Carolina and the athletic department in the process.

Ultimately, we are glad that the NCAA finally did the right thing by ruling Walker eligible immediately, despite taking way too long to do so. However, they couldn’t even do the right thing without being in the wrong in the final ruling by claiming that it was never their fault Walker was ineligible, but North Carolina was the reason. Once again, the NCAA doesn’t take responsibility for their wrongdoing and points the finger at someone else.

Even when they make the right decision, the NCAA does something negative to negate that positive outcome.

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