Hakeem Nicks‘ record-setting college career now comes with an asterisk.
The Giants’ 24-year-old receiver, who set the career and single-season receiving yardage records at the University of North Carolina, was found to have been academically ineligible during his junior season in 2008, according to a report Thursday night in the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer. The report said Nicks committed what the NCAA called “academic fraud.”
According to the report, NCAA documents showed Nicks received “improper academic help” in the spring of 2008.
This is the second time Nicks’ name has come up in the scandal that led to sanctions against the UNC football program and cost former head coach Butch Davis his job. In 2010, UNC said Nicks was part of a group of three former players who provided “impermissible assistance” to then-current Tar Heel players – in Nicks’ case, he was alleged to have given $3,300 in improper benefits.
The University said then the benefits given by the former players included “the estimated value of lodging provided in their homes” and “gifts of cash and jewelry and impermissible assistance with lodging, travel, transportation and entertainment expenses.”
According to The News & Observer, the new allegation against Nicks in the NCAA infractions report (which doesn’t identify him by name) is that a tutor “wrote conclusion paragraphs for five of (his) writing assignments in an education course.”
As part of the sanctions Nicks’ records and achievements at UNC will have an asterisk placed after them in media guides and record books and, according to the report, will be followed by the words “participation later vacated due to NCAA penalty.”
Nicks caught 181 passes for a school-record 2,840 yards and a record 21 touchdowns during his three seasons with the Tar Heels. He also set a school record with 1,222 receiving yards in 2008. He was then drafted by the Giants with the 29th pick of the first round of the 2009 NFL draft.
