Carolina could add receiver

CHAPEL HILL — Former Burlington Cummings wideout Dwight Jones, who is currently enrolled and practicing at Div. II Valdosta State, might end up being a Tar Heel after all.

According to insidecarolina.com, Jones' academics may have been judged under the wrong set of rules, leaving him eligible to play Division I football.

He will practice for the fourth day with Valdosta State this afternoon.

But the school's athletics director, Herb Reinhard, told the News & Observer through a team spokeman: "We have communicated with Dwight about his academic status changing, and we have signed a release allowing UNC to talk to him. Right now, he is a member of our team, and we're going forward with that idea."

Amy Herman, UNC's assistant athletics director for compliance, said in an email to the N&O that UNC "is working with the NCAA and the Eligibility Center on this issue and hope to have it resolved soon."

NCAA rules, she added, precludes the school from providing any additional information.

Jones signed with UNC in February, 2007, then played at Hargrave Military Academy when he failed to qualify. He enrolled at Valdosta State after he apparently failed to qualify again.

But Cummings assistant coach Jay Perdue told insidecarolina.com that Jones' academics were judged under the wrong set of rules, so he should be eligible.

“I think [Jones] is confused right now,” Perdue told the website. “One minute, he wasn’t going to qualify so he had to get himself mentally prepared to go D-II. He took some visits and then he found a home that he really liked. He really liked Valdosta. He’s been in practice and he’s fired up about it. And then all the sudden, it comes back that he’s actually eligible for Division I.

“So right now he’s just going back and forth. I think he’s considering both ends of it. He hasn’t made a decision.”