Given the epic scope, sordid details and surprise twists in North Carolina's ongoing saga of NCAA violations, it seems like the only elements missing from the story are a) Sleazy politicians, b) Strippers and c) At least one desperate lawsuit. So, courtesy of defensive end Michael McAdoo, it's time to bring on the lawsuit:
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A former North Carolina football player has filed a lawsuit against the school and the NCAA, seeking reinstatement after being declared permanently ineligible for academic misconduct.
Defensive end Michael McAdoo is also seeking unspecified damages from the school and the NCAA, which the lawsuit accuses of "gross negligence" in ruling him ineligible based on inaccurate information. McAdoo's attorneys filed the lawsuit Friday in Durham County Superior Court.
(Sorry if you were hoping for strippers. There's still some time.)
McAdoo is one of 14 Carolina players who missed at least one game last season, a group that initially included half the starting defense for the season-opening loss to LSU and seven players ? including McAdoo and a trio of soon-to-be draft picks accused of accepting benefits from multiple agents, former teammates and assorted hangers-on ?�who sat out the entire season. Another of those seven, fullback Devon Ramsay, had his eligibility restored by the NCAA in February, after UNC submitted new information that cleared Ramsay of academic fraud on a paper he'd written with the help of a supposedly rogue tutor two years earlier.
Presumably, McAdoo's argument will run along the same lines: He and Ramsay were both ruled permanently ineligible at the same time last November ?�much later than teammates accused of accepting improper benefits ?�under apparently similar circumstances, which athletic director Dick Baddour vowed at the time to "aggressively appeal" because "the facts of the cases simply do not support permanent ineligibility." In Ramsay's case, the NCAA eventually agreed; with a little gentle legal prodding, maybe they'll come around to McAdoo's side, too.
If he does make it back into the NCAA's good graces, McAdoo still faces an uphill battle to get back on the field after linemates Quinton Coples and Donte Paige-Moss turned themselves into likely first-round draft picks in his absence. As closely as Big Brother is watching Chapel Hill at this point, though, you never know when opportunity may strike.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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