And so another domino falls. Prominent NCAA athletic departments have taken one hit after another over the last 12 months. A summer that began with the shocking resignation of Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel, witnessed the firing of North Carolina football coach Butch Davis on Wednesday.
Less than 24 hours later, the university sped up the retirement of athletic director Dick Baddour, who spent his 14-year tenure pouring millions into upgraded facilities for the school’s football program and hired Davis to vault the Tar Heels into national prominence. Baddour was scheduled to retire when his three-year contract ran out in June. He will now leave his position as soon as the school hires a new athletic director.
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The reason? As always, the firings and resignations follow a cumulative build up of embarrassing allegations about NCAA violations. Just like the Ohio State case, where the administration supported Tressel for months until that position finally became untenable in May, North Carolina was behind Davis despite a litany of rules violations that surfaced last summer.
As recently as Tuesday at the ACC’s football media day, Davis appeared to have the support of his bosses. That made the timing of his firing and Baddour’s imminent exit so surprising.
Why not make this move months ago? North Carolina chancellor Holden Thorp didn’t have a good answer for that at a news conference on Thursday in Chapel Hill. But in the end, he decided the push for an elite football team was not worth the cost of his school’s academic reputation. But North Carolina still must answer to the NCAA’s infractions committee for nine potential major violations at a hearing in October.
