UNC football coach Larry Fedora and the rest of the Tar Heels athletic program will have a new online home starting July 1. PHOTO: Robert Willett

Tar Heel blue will soon be no more. Well, not the color. But the website.

North Carolina’s official online athletic department home for years has been found at tarheelblue.com. Starting July 1, though, UNC’s official site can be found at GoHeels.com.

CHAPEL HILL — Six North Carolina sports teams on Thursday received public recognition awards from the NCAA for ranking among the top 10 percent nationally in academic progress rate (APR) for athletes.

UNC could be playing football games on Fridays as part of the ACC's new TV contract. PHOTO: Robert Willett

As I’m sure you’ve heard about by now, the ACC and ESPN earlier this week announced a restructured TV rights deal that will pay the conference $3.6 billion over 15 years. The deal goes into effect July 1, and runs through the 2026-27 college sports season.

So what does this mean for the individual schools and, particularly, for UNC? It means, for one thing, that ACC schools will stand to make, on average, $4 million more per season off of this TV deal when compared to the old one, which only went into effect July 1, 2011.

The impermissible benefits and academic fraud scandals that led to Butch Davis' firing also led to UNC's internal investigation into the Department of African and Afro-American studies. PHOTO: N&O file

CHAPEL HILL — The University of North Carolina recently released the results of a months-long internal investigation into the Department of African and Afro-American Studies. UNC’s investigation found widespread academic fraud involving more than 50 courses, and the investigation found evidence of academic fraud ranging from professors who never showed up to teach class to unauthorized grade changes.

You can read The News & Observer’s story about UNC’s internal investigation right here. You can also find a complete copy of the investigation right here. 

If UNC’s internal investigation wasn’t damning enough, the situation became worse today. Responding to a request from The N&O, UNC provided the number of football and men’s basketball players who enrolled in courses at the heart of the investigation into the Department of African and Afro-American Studies. According to UNC, 39 percent of those enrolled in the suspect courses were either football or men’s basketball players. Here is the story from N&O reporter Dan Kane.

The ACC issued to the University of North Carolina a public reprimand for violations that occurrerd within the Tar Heels' football program. PHOTO: News & Observer file.

CHAPEL HILL — The ACC on Friday issued a public reprimand to the University of North Carolina for violations that occurred in the Tar Heels’ football program. Here’s a story about the reprimand.

North Carolina's trip to the NCAA tournament Midwest regional final helped the Tar Heels in the Directors' Cup standings. PHOTO: Ethan Hyman

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina is ranked No. 8 in the latest Directors’ Cup standings, which were released on Thursday. The Directors’ Cup measures the overall excellence of NCAA Division I collegiate athletic programs.

The Tar Heels are the second-highest ACC team in the rankings, behind Florida State, which is No. 4. Stanford is ranked No. 1, followed by Ohio State and Penn State. Three more Big Ten schools – Wisconsin (No. 7), Minnesota (No. 9) and Michigan (No. 10) are included among the top 10 teams in the rankings.

CHAPEL HILL — The University of North Carolina hosted on Tuesday a three-person panel discussion entitled “Big-Time College Sports: What Needs to Change?” I couldn’t attend, unfortunately, but News & Observer columnist Luke DeCock was there, and you can read his column right here.

Though I couldn’t attend in person, I followed the panel’s discussion through Twitter and an Internet live stream via reesenews.org, which has posted the full video of the panel’s discussion right here.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to UNC Now – The News & Observer’s new blog dedicated to all things University of North Carolina athletics. I’m in Shreveport, La., right now getting ready to cover UNC’s game here against Missouri in the Independence Bowl. So consider this an abbrievated introduction.

Nonetheless, I wanted to write a few words in recognition of the “soft launch” of UNC Now.