The results of the NCAA investigations of former Raleigh and Kentucky basketball star John Wall and Renardo Sidney of Mississippi State offer recent examples of the type of punishment the NCAA hands out when it finds student-athletes received improper benefits.
"Every case is different," said Shane Lyons, the ACC's associate commissioner for compliance. "The NCAA makes decisions on a case-by-case basis, and there can be a lot to decipher in these cases."
The NCAA visited Chapel Hill on July 12 and 13. Receiver Greg Little was interviewed by the NCAA, his father said, about whether he had improper contact with an agent. The News & Observer has confirmed that defensive tackle Marvin Austin also was interviewed.
The NCAA delivered its ruling on Wall, the top pick in this year's NBA Draft, on Oct. 30 and Sidney on March 5.
The NCAA suspended Wall for two games and ordered him to repay almost $800 in expenses he incurred on unofficial college visits while he was still in high school at Raleigh's Word of God Academy.
The NCAA gave Sidney two punishments: a one-year suspension (the entire 2009-10 season) for lying to the NCAA during its investigation and a nine-game suspension for the 2010-11 season for receiving $11,800 in improper benefits.
Sidney has to repay the money to a charity, Mississippi State compliance director Bracky Brett said Tuesday.
Sidney's suspension for the 2010-11 season, 30 percent of the Bulldogs' regular season, is based on penalties prescribed by the NCAA Division I Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement.
According to NCAA documents, for expenses less than $500, the suspension is zero games; between $501 and $700 is 10 percent of the regular season; $701 to $1,000 is 20 percent; and $1,001 "and up" is 30 percent.
The NCAA does not quantify a "point of no return" or an upper limit on the monetary value of expenses before a student-athlete would be unable to repay the amount and retain his eligibility.
Signing with an agent, or "an agreement indicating that an individual will represent him or her," results in a loss of eligibility, according to the NCAA document.
The NCAA classifies the college football season as 12 games and the college basketball season as 29 games, Brett said. The NCAA rounds the suspension up, Brett said, so in the case of football, 10 percent would be two games, 20 percent would be three games and 30 percent would be four games.
"In the appeal process, you can mitigate those games down," Brett said, noting the mathematical difference in the standard and Wall's suspension.
North Carolina's first four opponents - Louisiana State (9-4), Georgia Tech (11-3), Rutgers (9-4) and East Carolina (9-5) - collectively went 38-16 in 2009.
Lyons, without specifically addressing the UNC case, said those are the guidelines the NCAA offers but they are malleable.
"The NCAA is trying to make the penalties consistent," Lyons said. "Those are starting guidelines; they're not set in stone."
There is one procedural matter that could potentially keep coach Butch Davis and the Tar Heels in NCAA limbo before practice starts Aug. 6 or the season starts Sept. 4.
According to the "policies and procedures" document for the reinstatement committee, if UNC appeals the decision, a written waiver appeal "generally take[s] three weeks to be reviewed."
