The University of North Carolina has released to the public its response to the NCAA's allegations of nine major allegations against the Tar Heel football program.

In the official response, UNC announced it will impose the following punishments on the Tar Heels football program:

• Vacate the 16 wins from the 2008 and 2009 seasons.
• Dock three football scholarships a season for the 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 academic years.
• Self-impose two years of probation.
• Pay a monetary fine of $50,000.

"We have acknowledged our violations, and we've responded in the way you would expect of this University," UNC chancellor Holden Thorp said in a statement. "We think that the sanctions we have proposed accept responsibility and, at the same time, give our current and future student-athletes and coaches every opportunity for success. We go before the NCAA Committee on Infractions on October 28, and that will be another important milestone." 

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.

The Duke lacrosse saga that began in 2006 is an ongoing reminder that quick conclusions can be the epitome of a dangerous leap in sports.

With that in mind, far be it from me to say without reservation that Miami’s athletics program is on the verge of virtual devastation.

But if the NCAA eventually determines that this week's allegations of outrageous behavior by the school and its athletes are accurate, the ACC will forever rue the day that the Hurricanes only a few years ago were the centerpiece of expansion.

Marvin Austin, the former UNC defensive tackle who missed the 2010 college season when the university dismissed him for his role in prompting an NCAA investigation of the Tar Heels program, played Saturday night for the New York Giants in their 20-10 loss to the Carolina Panthers.

Afterwards, the Giants’ rookie answered questions from a small group of reporters, including The Charlotte Observer’s Scott Fowler.

CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina interim football coach Everett Withers declined to say this morning whether Tar Heels defensive lineman Quinton Coples would be punished by the team for a sign-out policy mistake that eventually led to the All-ACC player being interviewed by the NCAA.

Watch video of Withers' comments about Coples.

“The sign-out sheet policy is an internal policy that we have, so anything that happens will be an internal issue in how we handle it,’’ Withers said today. “As you guys all know, Quinton was cleared by the NCAA, so that issue goes away. No, what we do is handle anything internally in the family.”

Coples said he filed a sign-out sheet in May when he left campus – a policy instituted during the spring semester to track football players' whereabouts whenever they leave campus for 24 hours or more. The team instituted the policy after UNC lost Marvin Austin, Robert Quinn and Greg Little for the entire 2010 season after it was determined they had accepted trips and improper, agent-related benefits.

The problem, Coples said Thursday, was that he did not inform the team that he would be attending Austin’s NFL draft party in Washington, D.C.

NCAA investigators returned to Chapel Hill to interview Coples after a Washington magazine posted pictures from the party on its website. Several of the photos depicted Coples alongside Quinn, Austin and former teammate Michael McAdoo, who was ruled permanently ineligible by the NCAA for academic misconduct.
 
“I signed out, but it was an adjustment that I had to make that I didn’t make, which was to inform them that I was going to the party outside the place I was actually going,’’ Coples said. “ … I told them where I was going, which I did go to, but when I made that adjustment to go to the party, I just didn’t let anyone know. And that’s when the whole situation came up.”

The NCAA eventually told UNC that Coples did not commit any violations, but given that 14 players were held out of at least one game last season because of the NCAA investigation, it made for a stressful situation.

"I didn't think anything was going to happen,’’ Coples said. “I was just going to celebrate with my former teammates that had just gotten drafted. I felt like some people took things into a different perspective and saw something different and tried to make the situation bigger than what it was. At the end of the day, I was cleared, and I thank God for that and we're moving on.

"That was definitely a learning experience for me."
 

University of North Carolina chancellor Holden Thorp apologized today for expressing his disappointment over former football coach Butch Davis offering a team scholarship to his son, acknowledging that discussing a specific recruit is an NCAA violation.

Thorp's comments concerning Drew Davis' scholarship offer came during a Thursday phone interview with News & Observer reporter Ken Tysiac about the NCAA investigation of the Tar Heels football program. Thorp said he was disappointed that Butch Davis had offered the scholarship without consulting with him or UNC athletic director Dick Baddour.

CHAPEL HILL — UNC assistant football coach Everett Withers has been named interim head coach for the Tar Heels program, the university announced this evening.

A Charlotte native, Withers has served as UNC’s defensive coordinator and secondary coach under Butch Davis the last three seasons.  Last year, UNC’s defense ranked fourth in the ACC and 30th in the country.
 
Withers contract for the 2011 season will be amended to reflect his promotion to interim head coach.  Details will be available at a later date.  With Withers' promotion, the Tar Heels will begin the process of hiring a full-time assistant to complete the staff, according to a release issued by the university.

Last week, UNC football coach Butch Davis pledged to release records of business calls made on his personal cell phone, which had been requested by several media organizations.

But his firing this week makes it hard to say whether those records will ever become public.

“That’s up to coach Davis,” UNC chancellor Holden Thorp said this morning.

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.

Former UNC defensive lineman Marvin Austin's comments on Twitter first drew the attention of NCAA investigators last year as he tweeted about a party in Miami and other good times.

Wednesday, in the aftermath of a Durham Superior Court ruling that denied his former Tar Heels teammate Michael McAdoo an injunction that would have allowed McAdoo to resume playing with the Tar Heels this fall, Austin unleashed a series of tweets on his @anchormanaustin account expressing his frustration and apparently threatening to reveal more about North Carolina's football program and the ongoing NCAA investigation.