UNC Football: Tar Heels Prepare for ECU As Probe Plot Thickens

A purple Pirates flag waved in the wind at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill Wednesday morning, but the ECU pranksters barely caused a stir on campus.

Surely, the culprits figured planting their pride and joy on enemy territory would get the blood boiling for Saturday’s game at North Carolina.

You know the Pirates feel good about themselves at 2-1.

Does it matter that ECU needed a Hail Mary to beat Tulsa? Or that after beating mighty Memphis, it got smoked against a fraudulent Virginia Tech team? 

Not really.

The flag-planters set out to get the Tar Heels riled up a few days prior to kickoff.

Consider it a blank round fired.

On any other day in any other year, maybe the prank would have resonated a little bit more. Maybe it would have caused a little bad blood leading up to game day.

But given the ongoing investigations into UNC’s football program, a feeble piece of cloth, no matter the color, means nothing.

With more details about the probe coming via a Yahoo! Sports story this week, all life has been sucked out of the season.

The story unveiled money transactions between former assistant coach John Blake and agent Gary Wichard, and it exposed an investigation that now appears to be much more complex than a few players attending a party in Miami.

At best, Blake facilitated trips and training sessions in California with Wichard’s agency, Pro Tect Management, while receiving numerous wire transfers from Wichard’s private bank.

At worst, Blake has been exposed as a runner for Wichard, funneling him top amateur players for a fee.

If that’s the case, the perception is that UNC will potentially face the toughest sanctions the NCAA has handed down to date.

What would those be?

Well, we can start with what the NCAA did to Southern California this past summer—a two-year bowl ban and 30 lost scholarships.

But those sanctions were mostly due to the infractions on behalf of one player and USC’s arrogance regarding anything compliance-related.

North Carolina had multiple players involved in the initial agent probe, as well as a handful of others involved in a self-reported probe looking into potential academic fraud.

Now throw in the assistant head coach working behind the scenes for an agent...by any measure, North Carolina’s case is much worse than that of USC.

A coach recommending a specific agency to his players is difficult to prove. The parties involved can deny it and then there isn’t much else to do but move on.

But when bank records and hotel receipts document the dirty pool, there’s no escape.

If Carolina is hit with multi-year sanctions and a significant number of lost scholarships, the football program may not return to a competitive level for a number of years.

The University of North Carolina and Chapel Hill both have a ton to offer a student.

A fantastic education, a lively college atmosphere, world-class facilities and technology, and a unique platform for innovation and thought all await students who wish to earn a degree at UNC.

But reality is that those things aren’t enough to attract the type of football recruits needed to compete for ACC and national championships.

The 4-star and 5-star recruits have NFL dreams, not just BCS dreams, and they want to go to the big-time programs with the big-time coaches. They want to be coached like a pro with the luxury of national exposure.

Carolina doesn’t have that type of football pedigree, which is the one thing separating it from a school like USC.

USC will survive its sanctions because it’s a name-brand program in the heart of Los Angeles that continually pumps out great NFL prospects. The Trojan football program still offers a ton even if it can’t compete in the Rose Bowl until New Year’s Day 2013.

Carolina? Maybe the basketball program has that kind of pull, but that’s it.

Head coach Butch Davis has expressed interest in remaining at North Carolina to see the University through these years of inevitable sanctions.

And the administration has expressed support for Davis.

Both sides’ feelings could change in the coming month or two depending on the NCAA’s final conclusion of the case.

If Davis stays, Carolina could potentially tread water and pump out .500 teams because Davis is a great coach and has made North Carolina relevant in his four years in Chapel Hill.

But if Davis goes, some national college football analysts have wondered whether many coaching candidates would even consider the UNC job.

At this point in the investigation, it seems almost impossible that Davis will be at UNC next season.

It’s not about fairness.

It’s about being the official face of a program during its dirtiest years in history. How do you ever shed that label?

But for now, the Tar Heels will try to beat ECU and climb back to 2-2 heading into next week’s ACC showdown with Clemson.

ECU has won with a little bit of luck and a poor schedule.

The Pirates rank ninth in the country in points, but wake me when they post 40-plus against a respectable opponent.

Tulsa went 5-7 last year. Memphis went 2-10.

Even with numerous Tar Heels still being held out due to the investigations, ECU doesn’t have enough talent to beat Carolina on the road, regardless of how many purple shirts make the two-hour drive from Greenville.

Ain’t happening.

If Carolina can win today and then beat Clemson next week, it may build a little momentum and challenge some teams as it continues to get more players back.

If not?

Well, it will just start the long, cold road into the NCAA’s doghouse a little earlier.

Follow Teddy Mitrosilis on Twitter. You can reach him at [e-mail].