University of North Carolina Chancellor Holden Thorp and Athletics Director Dick Baddour addressed a new element to the problems currently facing UNC's football program Thursday evening in a hastily-called press conference in Kenan Stadium.

Reporters intending to cover Carolina's Thursday afternoon practice were met at the practice fields with the news from UNC officials that head coach Butch Davis wouldn't be available for a pre-practice interview as originally scheduled, and that practice was no longer open for observation.

Davis was at Thursday night's press conference, seated to Baddour and Thorp's far right.

Chancellor Thorpe and Baddour confirmed that the University is now conducting its own separate investigation into possible academic issues with certain Tar Heel players.

"During the course of the joint investigation by the NCAA and the University into possible agent violations, we learned of a situation that includes possible academic misconduct involving a former undergraduate tutor and student-athletes on the football team," Thorp said.

"As Chancellor Thorp said, in the course of the ongoing NCAA review, we learned of possible academic misconduct involving a student tutor and student-athletes on the football team," said Baddour. "We don't yet know the extent of the issue."

"We are conducting our review vigorously, aggressively, and we will get to the bottom of this. Our process is very detailed and methodical," Baddour added.

Unlike the agent situation, in which the NCAA is conducting the investigation and UNC is not able to conduct its own specific review, the University has been given leeway to handle the academic situation their own way.

"The NCAA has allowed us to acknowledge this aspect of the investigation," said Thorp.

"When we determined that there were potential academic issues to look into, we discussed with the NCAA the best way to do that, and they agreed with us that having our faculty athletics representatives and Jack Evans lead the process that would do that would be the best way to do it," he added.

"As early as (Thursday) afternoon they (the NCAA) reaffirmed that we're leading the academic part of this process and doing it ourselves for the time being," Thorp added.

"Professor Jack Evans, Professor Lisa Broome, former and current faculty athletic representatives are leading the review from the University side," Baddour said.

"John Blanchard, senior associate AD for student affairs, Lance Markos from our compliance staff, as well as representatives from the University's legal counsel, they have conducted interviews with a number of student-athletes," Baddour added.

"What we're committing to here and why we felt we should come to you now (at the press conference) is we're going to get to the bottom of the situation. Dickie has put together an excellent team of folks that are working with this," Thorp said.

"We've got the faculty right there, and when we get to the bottom of the whole situation then we'll be able to assess it," he added.

The University was apprised of the academic issue while working to resolve the NCAA-related agent situation through player interview sessions.

"We learned about this through the interview process with a student-athlete that raised an issue that we felt like deserved further consideration on our part, and it led us down a road that brought us to what we're talking about," Baddour said.

"Those interviews that were being conducted were being done in a joint matter with us and the NCAA---our team and the NCAA team."

Baddour made a point to repeat himself in regards to the fact that the overall investigation has now branched out into two distinct parts---the NCAA inquiry regarding agents and a University inquiry regarding the academic matter.

He was quick to point out that nobody should make any firm calculations, but the message itself sounded as though UNC clearly won't be at full strength for the LSU game.

"The investigation now has two prongs---so I want to caution you against making assumptions if student-athletes don't play," he said.

"As much as we would like to finalize the matter before the first game, there is no definite time table. It is likely the review will extend beyond the start of the season."

"If that is the case, the University will decide whether to play individual student-athletes. We will make these decisions in the best interests in the University of North Carolina," Baddour continued.

When pressed, Baddour said it could come right down to Saturday morning in Atlanta.

"It's a difficult situation for Coach (Davis) and the players to prepare," Baddour said.

"We're proceeding with this as fast as we know how, and Coach has got to make some assumptions about how he prepares for the game, because we get to a certain point next week when we don't have a certain declaration on a player (from the NCAA), we're not backing off. We're going after that full force."

"The day of the game, if that's what it takes to get there," he added.

Both Thorp and Baddour reiterated their desire to see this process handled meticulously and fairly to protect the rights of all parties involved.

"While we are committed to resolving this and committed to all the values we're talking about here, we also want to be fair to everyone involved, and that means we owe them the work we're going to do to get to the bottom of the whole situation," Thorp said.

"Academic achievement and fairness are at the heart of the University of North Carolina and our Department of Athletics. We're treating this with the seriousness that you would expect from this University. We will straighten this out," he added. "We are still gathering information, but our hope is that the scope of this is limited."

"It's taking an enormous amount of time to sort through the details and determine the facts, but we are working as hard as we can to bring about resolution," Baddour said.

"Chancellor Thorpe is right---academic integrity is at the heart of what the University of North Carolina and the Department of Athletics are all about."

"There is no greater matter at stake, and we resolve to find any misconduct and to deal with it seriously, and through whatever measures are appropriate both by the University and the NCAA," Baddour added.

Baddour spoke in great detail about North Carolina's academic support and agent education programs---programs that he feels were more than adequate to avoid such problems but clearly have had some disconnections or dysfunction in recent months.

"I certainly don't want to sound defensive, but our agent education program is strong," he said. "We've got a process in place that other schools ask us about and we have felt good about that."

"Our academic support program rests in the College of Arts and Sciences. It has an advisory team as well as a faculty committee involved in all aspects of it," he added.

"Our instruction to tutors as to what they can and cannot do is explicit, is well-defined. People are trained. They sign statements saying they understand what the rules are."

"When the year is over we goes over with them a review and we ask them point blank, 'Has anything happened through the year that would draw into question any academic process?'" Baddour continued.

"We do that with every team, every student-athlete. We define things like plagiarism and exactly what it is you can do with the tutor, with each other, with other students, how that involves the faculty."

"We have these meetings that occur at the beginning of every year, and jointly with that it's tied in with our Honor Code and how our Honor system works and what the expectations of the Honor system are."

"I just feel good about the academic support program and the measures that we have, but nonetheless we're here talking about potential misconduct, and that is of grave concern," Baddour continued.

This entire situation has literally shaken North Carolina's football program to the core and has rattled a fan base eager for big-time success after enduring a dozen years of ebbs and flows on fall Saturdays---mostly ebbs.

UNC clearly wants to be a football power on the national stage by hiring a man like Davis, who won a national championship at Miami and built another championship team in Coral Gables a decade later---in-between winning two Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys.

But the University of North Carolina never will be solely about football, and academic integrity is something that is paramount over any championship or anything else that happens on the gridiron.

Which is why any UNC football players who have legitimately violated the school's Honor Code may have some major headaches in the coming months.

"The bottom line is this---it's a privilege to put on the North Carolina uniform and represent this University, and it's our job to make sure that the people who do so have earned the privilege," Thorp said.

"I know that Dick Baddour and Coach Davis feel as strongly about this as I do, and I have every confidence in their ability to lead our program through this."

"We will find out what happened. We will do everything we can to keep it from happening again, and we will not let these mistakes define our University and what we stand for," Thorp added.

"We will use this to be a better University, a better athletic department, and a better football program in the years to come."