Butch Davis' tenure in Chapel Hill has finally thrust Tar Heel football to the ranks of Ohio State and Southern Cal, with those programs' NCAA sanction woes earned at a bargain basement price of (likely) vacated wins.
The NCAA's 2011 Old Testament Reckoning Tour (think a litigator's "Gathering of the Juggalos" sponsored by Men's Wearhouse) landed at the University of North Carolina on Tuesday, as the Heels were served a college football powerhouse's portioning of allegations: both former defensive line coach John Blake and a UNC student were accused of purposefully misleading NCAA investigators, handing out impermissible benefits, while a slew of players received a variety of illegal benefits, academic assistance, contact with agents and all the fatty trimmings of wholesale alleged corruption you'd expect to land on the doorstep of a program that would've at least won their own division in the ACC during said transgressions.
Much more is to come from the NCAA's official notice, North Carolina's feeble response and whatever cold form of Wall Street seppuku a WASP like Davis can conjure up at his employer's demand. Locally this draws interest, as a pending UNC sanction or 30 will leave Georgia Tech with just two teams - Virginia Tech and an artifically Miami-flavored Miami - between them and a division title.
But we can't help but notice how little the Heels actually got for a game of dirty pool a Switzer could be proud of. The numbers: 28-23 in four years, including a 15-17 conference record that never once broke past .500 in a single season, two losses in the Meineke Car Care Bowl and the apex - a rule-defying (and redefining) Music City Bowl win over Tennessee, in what could be considered Davis' final coda of trangressions.
We defend college football from its sullied national perception on a seemingly daily basis, yet our outrage here stems first in UNC's woeful misuse of corruption. Do you know how hard it will be to foster a debate on best addressing a vacated third place finish in the ACC Coastal?
What might have been? The same damn thing, basically: "Think of what Al Groh's Virginia teams could've done?" Yeah, exactly. You've given us absolutely no outrage over your alleged competitive advantage UNC, and that's why you deserve what's coming.
For upcoming developments on various UNC football scandals, stick with this StoryStream. For more on Heels sports, join Carolina March.