The North Carolina athletic program has been under investigation since 2010 and many believe the eventual results will be earth-shattering. The latest development certainly doesn't help UNC's reputation.
A few weeks ago, we touched on the president at the University of Maryland president who believes UNC will receive the "death penalty," meaning one or more sports teams will be suspended for an entire season when everything is said and done.
Earlier this week, former NFL agent Terry Watson agreed to a plea deal in North Carolina court and earned a suspended jail sentence of six-to-eight months for bribing three former UNC football players with money in 2010 according to an ESPN report. Watson pleaded guilty to 13 charges of athlete-agent inducement in exchange for prosecutors dropping a felony obstruction of justice charge.
The ESPN piece states charges against Watson and four others were announced shortly after the state began to investigate the UNC athletic program. Watson had his license as an agent revoked by the NFLPA after getting accused of providing around $24,000 to Robert Quinn, Marvin Austin and Greg Little — three high-profile prospects coming out of Chapel Hill that year that the former agent was hoping to sign.
Immediately after Roy Williams led the Tar Heels hoops squad to another national championship win last month, I was bombarded with haters on Twitter discounting the victory because of the current scandal. I can promise you the UNC athletic department is doing everything by the book now and the behavior of people in 2010 shouldn't impact today's student athletes.
I still think this thing is going to get bigger and sketchier. There are probably folks that are still on staff who will suffer major consequences and the athletic program will undoubtedly face some sort of penalty. This might just be the beginning.
