After months of hinting that any and all legal options were on the table, Michael McAdoo has officially pulled the trigger on legal action in his fight to regain the college football eligibility stripped from him last November.
According to the Associated Press, McAdoo’s attorney, Noah Huffstetler, filed a lawsuit on behalf of his client against the NCAA, North Carolina and UNC chancellor Holden Thorp. The suit, which can be read in its entirety by clicking HERE, claims that McAdoo “was improperly and unjustly declared permanently ineligible to play intercollegiate athletics” by the NCAA.
McAdoo is seeking, the suit reads, “preliminary and permanent injunctive relief from the prohibition on his eligibility to play intercollegiate athletics, and for compensatory relief for damages.”
In November of 2010, McAdoo was declared permanently ineligible after the NCAA’s investigation into improper benefits and academic misconduct. It was found that McAdoo had received $110 in impermissible benefits, although the basis for the NCAA stripping the defensive lineman’s eligibility permanently is based on the academics side of the issue.
McAdoo and UNC appealed the NCAA’s initial decision in December, which was denied in February. At the time, UNC athletic director Dick Baddour stated that "[w]e appealed this decision because we believed it was unfair and we continue to believe that.”
In the suit filed by McAdoo today, three instances of academic issues were cited. According to the complaint, McAdoo was found not guilty by the the school in the first instance while there was insufficient evidence to bring charges in the second case. In the third case, which involved a tutor who was no longer a student at the school and thus her help became an NCAA violation, McAdoo was found guilty of “representing another’s work as his own” -- due in large part to the tutor aiding him with citations in a school paper -- and was placed on probation for the fall 2010 semester and suspended for the spring 2011 semester.
The suit contends that the above information is significant as “the NCAA found that McAdoo ‘accepted impermissible academic assistance from an institutionally-assigned tutor on several occasions during 2008-09 and over two summer terms in 2009.” It’s claimed that “the NCAA specifically relied on its unsupported and clearly erroneous conclusion”, which will likely be the thrust of Huffstetler’s argument seeking his client’s reinstatement.
A hearing has been scheduled for July 15 of this year, but here’s hoping that the NCAA will come to their senses and reverse their original decision.
We’re talking about $110 here people. If there’s a dictionary definition of the punishment not fitting the crime, this it. Swallow your pride, NCAA, and do the right thing.
