Here is the latest I have learned from surveying a collection of sources close to what is happening at UNC in regards to football.
Some of Carolina’s biggest donors requested and were granted a meeting with Chancellor Holden Thorp to express their displeasure that Butch Davis was fired and how it was handled.
They came away very unhappy with what they heard.
If Thorp gets his way, UNC will no longer accept football players who are marginal students, and if any player misses more than four classes in a semester, he will be declared ineligible for that semester.
This news is sending shock waves through the group of people who donate big money to Carolina. It is also a hypocritical attitude because Thorp is OK with having big-time basketball. There is a clear double standard.
I have learned that shortly before Davis was fired, Thorp’s secret committee (which TarHeelIllustrated.com revealed last week) met at the Carolina Inn. According to several sources, Matt Kupec participated via telephone because he was on vacation.
Cut to Saturday’s game. Kupec was at the luxury box where people were lined up to shake Butch’s hand. Kupec shook Davis’ hand as was well and smiled as if nothing had happened.
The fact that Thorp’s secret committee met just before he fired Davis shows how duplicitous Thorp has been all along in regards to his “support” of football and Davis.
Sources also told me that in midstream the university fired the law firm it had hired to represent it in the NCAA investigation. That firm consists of many former NCAA investigators and people who understand the process works.
Why? Why would UNC do something so illogical -- unless the avowed goal of the chancellor is not to rescue football but to destroy football as a viable sport at Carolina?
The question is do prospective athletic directors, whose biggest goal should be to maximize revenue from Kenan Stadium now that it is finally in a position to produce a large income, know that the chancellor he or she will answer to is working to deemphasize football and destroy its chances of competing and maximizing revenue?
There is more. Oklahoma is getting ready to leave the Big 12. That conference is dead. Mack Brown, former UNC coach and current coach at Texas, has acknowledged this.
With all movement occurring within the conferences, the Big Ten and the Southeastern Conferences have had intermediaries contact people within UNC to gauge an interest on Carolina’s part to join one of leagues.
Football is the driving force behind this, and Thorp is trying to minimize UNC’s ability to compete. The man just does not appear to understand what is happening around him. Basketball revenue is maxed out. The only way for UNC to earn more to keep the broad spectrum of non-revenue sports alive is to utilize the biggest tool left -- football and Kenan Stadium.
Unfortunately, his actions are going to produce exactly the opposite outcome.
The real stake holders in all of this, the big donors who made the Blue Zone happen, are infuriated with Thorp. Their displeasure was the big buzz during and after Saturday’s football game.
