Saturday, April 19, was a big day for N.C. State football fans. It was the day of the Red-White game to show off next season's team, and 15,000 Wolfpack diehards poured into Carter-Finley Stadium to watch the spring scrimmage.

But for many, the day got off to a bad start when they picked up their morning copy of The News & Observer. Spread across the Sports front was a five-column package of stories about the College Inn student apartment complex, owned by the school's booster club. "An address of choice," proclaimed the big, bold headline.

The story examined whether the residence hall complied with NCAA regulations on "jock dorms" and concluded that it appeared to fall within the limit of no more than 50 percent athletes. But, the article added, "N.C. State could run the risk of violating [the rules] because it has monitored the College Inn arrangement loosely."

A sidebar looked at a property tax exemption that saves the NCSU Student Aid Foundation, or Wolfpack Club, $132,000 a year in taxes on the off-campus property.

Wolfpack fans were not pleased with the stories, which they saw as smoke where there was no fire -- since there were no NCAA violations. "Your paper makes every effort to stick it to our hometown university every chance it gets, even when the facts don't support the premise," wrote Paul Michaels of Raleigh. "Innuendo on the day of a spring football game. Low, low class."

The paper received dozens of phone calls and e-mails. Among those I fielded, I counted 10 canceled subscriptions, two threats to stop advertising and three to boycott N&O advertisers. "The vet mentioned last week my parakeet didn't have long to live," wrote Doug Unwin. "When he passes, there will be no reason at all for me to continue my subscription. I'll miss the bird. Can't say the same about The N&O."

Lorenzo Perez, the reporter, said he received more than 70 e-mails and phone calls, including several saying he should be deported (To Pennsylvania? That's his land of nativity.)

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THE PURPOSE OF THE STORIES, said Perez and Assistant Sports Editor Andrew Curliss, was not to indict State but to give readers information about an unusual arrangement -- ownership of a college residence hall, occupied by athletes, by the school booster club. The Wolfpack Club is one of only two booster clubs in the ACC that own residence halls (the other is Florida State).

Reporting the ownership arrangement naturally led to the question of whether the school complies with the NCAA regulations, as well as to the property tax questions. State law was changed in 2004 to allow the tax break, but as the story reported, it was done for Appalachian State University, not the Wolfpack Club.

The 50 percent cap on athletes applies not just to the complex as a whole, but also to any wing or floor of the building. Perez found that athletes made up at least 41 percent of one floor and lived in half the eight apartments on one hallway. Athletics Department officials acknowledged that they have not paid close attention to the numbers on any wing or floor of the College Inn complex. It was based on that acknowledgment, Perez said, that the story said State "could run the risk" of violating the rules.

Perez said that he had a difficult time getting numbers from the Athletics Department and that the figures he got were incomplete. "We still don't have a full picture of how many athletes live there, and I would argue that N.C. State doesn't, either," he said.

Jon Fagg, N.C. State's assistant athletics director for compliance issues, said he didn't find any errors or inaccuracies in the stories. "I think the story was factually correct." But, he added, "I was surprised that the story was quite so big, that many column inches. I think it would have been an interesting information article, but I did not think it warranted the investigative piece it appeared to be."

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