CHAPEL HILL — What began in May 2010 with a Marvin Austin tweet about lavish partying on South Beach ended on Monday when the NCAA Committee on Infractions gave its final verdict in a scandal that hung over the University of North Carolina football program for nearly two years.

UNC’s football team will serve a postseason ban in 2012, and first-year head coach Larry Fedora will have to make do with five fewer scholarships in each of the next three seasons. During the same time span, UNC will remain on probation, and anything that runs afoul of NCAA rules during that time would be subject to harsher penalties.

The drama is over, finally, and the case is closed. But the end brings a time for reflection. So here are some final thoughts on a case that seemed would never end – but finally did earlier this week:

CHAPEL HILL — Three North Carolina-related things to think about on this gray morning from Chapel Hill: 

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina and Ohio State have agreed to a two-game series in football, UNC announced on Tuesday. The Tar Heels and Buckeyes will play one another in 2015, in Columbus, Ohio, and in 2017, in Chapel Hill.

UNC has also finalized its 2012 schedule with the addition of Idaho, which is scheduled to visit Kenan Stadium on Sept. 29. The 2012 home schedule also includes games against Virginia Tech, N.C. State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Elon (Sept. 1) and East Carolina (Sept. 22).

The University of North Carolina’s academic support program for student-athletes needs to increase its staff, hire a full-time tutor coordinator and have continued involvement in the admissions process, according to a UNC report released Thursday to reporters.

UNC’s committee to study the academic support program began meeting after the actions of a student tutor and mentor led to NCAA allegations of major violations in an investigation of impermissible benefits and academic fraud in the Tar Heels football program.

Many recommendations in the report have been discussed previously by UNC officials. The report suggested that the school hire a full-time tutor coordinator to oversee hiring, training, supervising and evaluating tutors.

CHAPEL HILL – Five days after the University of North Carolina posted its athletic director job, search committee chair Lowry Caudill said this morning he has been pleased with the response.

“For a week into the process formally, I’m very impressed with the quality of the candidates that have been nominated or presented themselves,” Caudill said today after a meeting of the search committee.

The committee met for about 2 ½ hours this morning, and all but the first 30 minutes were conducted privately in executive session while candidates were discussed.

CHAPEL HILL — University of North Carolina athletic director Dick Baddour announced this morning that he has asked university chancellor Holden Thorp to begin a search for a new AD "as soon as possible."

Baddour who is in the final year of a three-year contract extension with the university, said it was imperative that his successor be able to name new football coach for the Tar Heels program.

UNC-Chapel Hill has received its second big gift this week to support academic support for athletes and the ongoing expansion of Kenan Stadium.

Alumnus R. Charles "Charlie" Loudermilk Sr. has made a $7.5 million commitment to fund facilities supporting athletes as part of the Kenan Stadium renovation.

The commitment will create The Loudermilk Center for Excellence, a 150,000 square-foot facility being built on the stadium's east side. The center will serve all of Carolina's nearly 800 student-athletes across 28 sports.

As part of the Kenan Stadium renovation project, the Loudermilk Center is scheduled for completion in September 2011. The $70 million project is being funded by private gifts and premium seating sales.

The Loudermilk Center's largest feature will be the John W. Pope Student-Athlete Academic Support Center. This 29,000 square-foot facility will provide classrooms for teaching and tutoring, advanced computer technology, a writing lab, reading rooms and office space.

It also will be home to the Carolina Leadership Academy, which offers leadership training to Carolina student-athletes, coaches and staff.

The Raleigh-based John William Pope Foundation donated $3 million for that project, a gift announced earlier this week.
 
The Loudermilk Center will also house a strength and conditioning center for Carolina's Olympic sports programs, facilities for men's lacrosse and a visitor's locker room that can be split to host high school football championships. Other features include premium seating for fans watching football games, as well as office and operations space for the department of athletics.

"The Loudermilk Center is the heart of the Kenan project and will provide for one of the nation's top academic support facilities," said Dick Baddour, athletics director. "We are extremely grateful to Charlie for his generosity. Charlie loves his University and has supported it in so many ways. He was especially close to Charlie Justice, so it is fitting that the facility named for him is located in Kenan Stadium."

Loudermilk is chairman of Atlanta-based Aaron's Inc. A 1950 UNC graduate, he earned a bachelor's degree in commerce and now serves on the Board of Visitors of UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.

In Connecticut today, a staggering example of one booster's sway - or at least desired sway - over a collegiate football program.

At the University of Connecticut, football booster Robert Burton has set tongues wagging with a recent letter to Jeff Hathaway, director of athletics. In his deliciously labeled "personal and confidential" letter to Hathaway - a public employee - Burton makes quite clear that the millions he donated to UConn over the year have strings attached.

(A refresher: Burton is a longtime donor to UConn athletics; his $3 million gift a few years ago funded a massive indoor football practice facility on the Storrs campus, a supposed necessity for a university pouring resources into a burgeoning football program.)

Well, it appears Burton didn't like the athletic director's recent hiring of a new football coach.

The letter starts thus:

Dear Jeff:

When I called you on Monday, January 3rd, I made two things very clear to you, as the largest donor in the UConn football program. I told you that I wanted to be involved in the hiring process for the new coach. I also gave you my insight about who would be a good fit for the head coaching position as well as who would not. For someone who has given over $7,000,000 to the football program/university, I do not feel as though these requests were asking for too much.

Somewhere, a professor just developed a nervous tic.

Later in the letter, Burton demands his family's name removed from the building he funded, and he wants his $3 million back. He further pledges to no longer make various donations to the football program, buy advertising in the football programs, transfer scholarship donations from athletics to the business school, and even stop using UConn's business school for workforce training.

Instead, he's going to enlist the help of Syracuse's business school, he says.

For good measure, he points out he also paid for pictures and other art to decorate football offices, as well as an audio system for the weight room.

All of this because he feels disrespected and left out of the loop.

At this point I ought to reinforce the fact that Burton is not on the UConn staff nor a paid search consultant.

But 7 million bucks ought to buy him some face time with the boss, right?

In mid-September, UNC Football Coach Butch Davis voiced serious concerns about the ongoing investigation into wrongdoing in his program and the affect it was having on suspended players.

In an email to Chancellor Holden Thorp and Athletic Director Dick Baddour, the coach wrote on Sept. 22 said the 16 players sidelined during the investigation were growing angry and frustrated — and perhaps, depressed.