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UNC can leave early for their game at LBSU after all

Roy Williams

North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams reacts to a foul call as his team plays UNC Asheville in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011 in Asheville, N.C. North Carolina won 91-75. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)

AP

Remember Roy Williams’ rant from last week?

When he skewered the NCAA for not allowing his team to leave a couple hours early for a trip to play at Long Beach State and in the Maui Invitational?

He had a point. NCAA rules mandate that a team cannot leave more than 48 hours before a road game, and since UNC plays LBSU at 11 p.m. on a Friday night, they weren’t technically allowed to leave until 11 p.m. Wednesday night. This would have meant that UNC would have had to either pay $120,000 to charter a flight out west or fly commercially on Thursday morning for a Friday night game all because of an NCAA rule that forced them to stay on campus for six hours in which no classes were being held.

It’s not really all that big of a deal for the Tar Heels to fly Thursday morning, but the point was that it was a dumb ruling.

Dumber?

When Williams popped off about it, UNC had already had their appeal granted:

But UNC associate athletics director Clint Gwaltney, who now is in charge of the team’s scheduling, said the Tar Heels were actually granted the NCAA waiver last week, before Williams’ comments.

To be fair, the school and Williams didn’t know about the ruling yet, but it’s still pretty funny to think about.

Anyway, long story short, UNC will be allowed to leave six hours early.

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.