Over three weeks after they first visited North Carolina to investigate what has become a wide-ranging probe into alleged illicit player-agent relationships, the NCAA has -- cue ominous music -- returned to Chapel Hill.
And, apparently, it’s not because they enjoyed the Tar Heel state’s ambiance.
According to the Charlotte Observer, NCAA investigators were back on the UNC campus Wednesday as a follow-up to their mid-July visit that saw confirmed conversations with defensive tackle Marvin Austin and wide receiver Greg Little.
It’s been reported that as many as a baker’s dozen players were interviewed during the NCAA’s initial two-day visit to the school, although it’s yet to be confirmed that any players -- additional or otherwise -- were spoken to in the latest NCAA peek into the UNC football program.
On July 22, Butch Davis said that the NCAA would “make this as quick... as possible"; two weeks later, athletic director Dick Baddour is singing from the same pew as his head coach.
“We are all working as hard as we can to resolve this issue as quickly as we can,” the AD told the Observer Wednesday.
Baddour added that “this is a joint review” between the NCAA and his university.
At the center of the storm that’s touched four schools in addition to UNC -- South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Pittsburgh -- is a party/parties thrown in South Beach this past Memorial Day weekend; while student-athletes attending the party/parties in and of themselves would not constitute an NCAA violation(s), the fact it’s been alleged that an agent or one of his minions paid for airfare/hotel accommodations/other gratuities is what’s caught the NCAA’s attention.
And, coincidence or not, brought them back to Chapel Hill, where Marvin Austin has seemingly been in the eye of the investigative hurricane since the story first broke.