SEC’s Sankey refuses to step down in UNC case

RALEIGH, N.C. >> Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey has denied a request seeking his removal as head of the NCAA infractions panel handling North Carolina’s ongoing academic case because of a conflict of interest.

Sankey stated in an April 14 letter obtained by The Associated Press that the panel would “fairly decide this case.”

“The panel, including me, will hear and decide this case based on the case record and the membership’s bylaws,” Sankey wrote to all involved parties.

Elliot Abrams — a Raleigh attorney representing a retired office administrator charged with violations — had written the NCAA saying Sankey had a “personal, professional and institutional interest” in the outcome as SEC commissioner while comparing it to “refereeing a championship game between an (Atlantic Coast Conference) team and an SEC team.”

UNC faces five top-level charges, including lack of institutional control, in the multiyear probe centered on irregular courses in an academic department.

The case stalled in March after Abrams wrote the NCAA to say his client, Deborah Crowder, was willing to talk with investigators for the first time. Crowder, who graded many of the papers for problem classes, filed an affidavit defending the courses’ quality.

In his letter last week to the NCAA, Abrams said a third Notice of Allegations outlining revised charges against Crowder and UNC should be tossed out as the result of “inappropriate pressure from a conflicted hearing panel.” He also said an “arbitrary” April 14 deadline for Crowder’s interview wouldn’t allow adequate preparation for questions about years-old documents.