Former Tar Heel Files Lawsuit
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – A former North Carolina football player has filed a lawsuit against the school and the NCAA, seeking reinstatement after being declared permanently ineligible for academic misconduct.
View Current 2011 College Football Futures
Defensive end Michael McAdoo is also seeking unspecified damages from the school and the NCAA, which the lawsuit accuses of “gross negligence” in ruling him ineligible based on inaccurate information. McAdoo’s attorneys filed the lawsuit Friday in Durham County Superior Court, claiming he was “improperly and unjustly” declared permanently ineligible in November.
According to the complaint, the NCAA ruled McAdoo ineligible for receiving improper assistance from tutor Jennifer Wiley “on multiple assignments across several academic terms.”
But McAdoo’s lawyers argue that the school’s Honor Court found him guilty of only one infraction: Representing another’s work as his own after Wiley had formatted in-text citations and the “works cited” page in a research paper. The school’s Honor Court decided to suspend him from school for the spring semester, but allow him to re-enroll in the summer and then return to the football team this fall. It cleared him in a second case and the student attorney general decided there was insufficient evidence to pursue a third against him.
He had also received $110 in improper benefits. Most of that was connected to a trip to the Washington, D.C., area with teammates Marvin Austin and Greg Little, prompting the school to hold him out for the first three games.
“All told, McAdoo has been declared permanently ineligible to play intercollegiate athletics because he received $110 in improper benefits (which he has since paid to charity), and because his university-assigned and trained tutor provided McAdoo with too much assistance … for one class in the summer of 2009,” the complaint states. “This punishment is grossly disproportionate to the facts of McAdoo’s case, and is inconsistent with the punishment meted out by the UNC Honor Court.”
McAdoo was one of seven players forced to sit out all of last season amid the NCAA’s investigation into improper benefits and academic misconduct. The lawsuit seeks to compel chancellor Holden Thorp to reinstate McAdoo while also preventing the NCAA from interfering in the process. A hearing on that request is scheduled for July 15.
Want More From TheSpread.com? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook or Subscribe to Our News Feeds!