Michael McAdoo was one of seven North Carolina football players who missed the entire 2010 season because of their roles in an impermissible benefits/academic scandal. After having his eligibility permanently stripped in November, McAdoo’s appeal was denied by the NCAA in February, a decision that led UNC athletic director Dick Baddour to declare the outcome was “unfair”.
McAdoo’s family heartily agrees with the AD’s assessment, and continues the fight to have his eligibility restored in time to play the 2011 season.
“We believe the decision that the NCAA reached is 100 percent wrong,” McAdoo’s mother, Janai Shelton, told the Charlotte Observer. “Michael was not treated fairly, and the NCAA made a mistake in deciding he should be ineligible.”
McAdoo was found to have received $103 in impermissible benefits as well as, the Observer writes, a family member or tutor giving him too much help on a paper or presentation. And for that the defensive end was declared permanently ineligible? Good thing he didn’t lie on NCAA compliance forms; the hammer might have really come down on him.
As the appeal and subsequent denial was the final decision of the NCAA, McAdoo has hired an attorney to help with the eligibility issue. Short of new evidence surfacing, the NCAA will not consider another appeal, so it may be necessary to take the case into the legal system in order to get the would-be senior’s eligibility restored.
“It’s nowhere near anything that I think rational adults would consider to constitute academic fraud,” attorney Noah Huffstetler said.
“We don’t think that (process) is at all sufficient to ensure against arbitrary and capricious decisions when something as important as a young man’s future and livelihood in some cases ... is at stake.”
Hopefully McAdoo is successful in having his eligibility restored as, unless there’s additional information that has yet to see the light of day, it’s borderline asinine for a player to receive what’s essentially a two-year suspension for receiving a little over $100 in impermissible benefits and too much help on a single paper.