NCAA Committee on Infractions sets date for UNC hearing

North Carolina’s hearing before the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions has been set for Oct. 28 in Indianapolis. The university was informed of the date on Monday in a letter from the committee’s managing director Joel D. McGormley. According to the letter, which was released on Friday, the hearing will focus solely on “the procedural issues raised in the institution’s response” to the amended Notice of Allegations it received in August and not on “the merits or whether violations occurred.” While UNC has acknowledged and accepted responsibility for the fraudulent classes that took place over an 18-year period in its African and Afro-American Studies department, it disputes the most serious of the five Level I charges — that the athletic department exhibited a lack of institutional control on the basis that the transgressions were an academic problem outside the NCAA’s jurisdiction. The hearing will be the next-to-last step in a seemingly endless process that first came to light in 2010. After an unspecified period for deliberation, usually about two months, the committee will render its decision and issue sanctions.