A too-close relationship between a football player and a tutor University officials discovered last summer has resurfaced as part of the ongoing investigations.
After the academic support office identified the potentially problematic relationship, the tutor was dismissed, Chancellor Holden Thorp told trustees Thursday morning.
Head coach Butch Davis said he wasn’t told of the situation regarding her dismissal. When he later asked about her status as an employee he learned she hadn’t been retained, he said.
“When I inquired there was no cause for concern,” Davis told reporters before practice Thursday. “Everybody just said she wasn’t retained, and so we just moved on.”
It wasn’t until the NCAA began to investigate the team in July — initially for players who received improper benefits from agents — that the tutor and allegations of academic misconduct came up again.
All of the information uncovered in the University’s subsequent investigation has been passed along to the student attorney general’s office, Thorp told trustees.
The student-run judicial system is the next step in the process, and means the players accused of academic dishonesty are one step closer to finding their fate.
It’s not clear exactly how many players that means. Eleven were still outstanding earlier this week, but that number includes players accused of academic misconduct as well as those implicated in the NCAA investigation. Administrators won’t say which players are part of which investigations but have said some are part of both.
“We are trying very hard to protect the individual student athletes,” Thorp said.
