NCAA sends new allegations to UNC

The University of North Carolina has been involved in an ongoing investigation into their academic irregularities, and a UNC official confirmed Monday that the university has received an amended notice of allegations from the NCAA.

The Fayette Observer reported that UNC has a receipt for a new notice of allegations (NOA) is the first movement in the case that opened back in August. Currently, the school is under investigation for five major NCAA violations which includes the women's basketball program.

With this new NOA, North Carolina has 90 days to respond to the amended NOA, then following that answer, the NCAA has 60 days to respond to the university's response. The next step would bring officials from North Carolina to appear in front of the NCAA's Committee on Infractions to discuss further measures regarding the situation.

The Observer reported the University reported themselves back in August for the improper academic assistance former women's basketball players received, along with other allegations in different sporting departments. The University of North Carolina confessed this information a few days before the original NOA was due in August.

Based on the original NOA, the charge the women's basketball program is receiving is considered a potential Level 1 violations. Jan Boxill was the women's basketball programs counselor who has been charged with knowingly providing extra benefits in the form of impermissible academic assistance and special arrangements to women's basketball players from 2007-10.

One charge in the case stated:

"Academic counselors leveraged relationships with AFAM faculty and staff members from 2002 to 2011 to provide athletes with benefits such as requesting course offerings, suggesting assignments, turning in papers and recommending grades. From 2006 to 2011, 10 student-athletes exceeded the school's 12-hour limit of independent study credits countable toward graduation."

The academic scandal at the University was brought to the NCAA's attention back in July of 2010 starting with the football team and expanded to the women's program.

The Observer also reported the former U.S. Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein brought his independent investigations to the officials at North Carolina back in 2014. What he discovered was no-show paper classes and inflated grades from 1993-2011. Of the 3,100 students involved, 47.4 percent of those students happened to be student-athletes who were participating in suspect classes in the AFAM department.