NC’s attorney general may have given the NCAA the shove it needed on UNC’s Tez Walker | Opinion

The NCAA abruptly announced Thursday that Devontez “Tez” Walker will be eligible to play football at North Carolina this season after all, reversing the cruel decision it had previously made to deny him eligibility.

In a statement announcing its decision, the NCAA claimed it received “new information” from UNC regarding Walker’s situation that led them to grant the waiver request.

Perhaps that “new information” was the threat of legal action.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein sent the NCAA a letter last month demanding that it reconsider its decision to deny Walker eligibility, his office said in a statement Thursday. The letter warned that the NCAA’s decision to deny Walker eligibility was likely unlawful because it may have violated federal and state antitrust laws.

Stein’s letter also stated that his office was considering the “full range of options at its disposal to investigate the NCAA’s potential antitrust violations.”

“These options include issuing civil investigative demands to the NCAA, initiating an investigation alongside Attorney General Offices in my sister States, and pursuing litigation alleging violations of state and federal law,” Stein wrote in the letter.

Good on Stein. It was the right battle to pick, and the NCAA had it coming.

The NCAA didn’t back down quietly, though. Instead of accepting the blame for its own decision, the NCAA pointed the finger at UNC, petulantly saying that the “entire unfortunate episode could have been avoided” had the school provided the supposed new information from the start. UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham, however, said that characterization was “not accurate.”

The NCAA went on to whine about the “public relations campaign” waged by UNC head coach Mack Brown and other school officials. Please. Had it not been for pushback from people like Brown and Stein, the NCAA probably would have upheld its decision, no matter how wrong it was, and Walker never would have been able to play this season. Besides, the fuss didn’t begin until the NCAA had already screwed up once.

The NCAA did the right thing in the end. Too bad it won’t ever admit that it was in the wrong to begin with.

This story was originally published October 5, 2023 at 5:43 PM with the headline "NC’s attorney general may have given the NCAA the shove it needed on UNC’s Tez Walker | Opinion."