Correction: Our Invesitg8ive Team has confirmed that Change.org is a site where anyone can begin a petition and is NOT an indication that President Obama is crowdsourcing an idea to ban the UNC Tar Heels from the 2015-16 NCAA tournament. We have obtained documentation that shows the source of this petition, an NC State posting under the name of “Rancher11” on the popular Wolfpack message board, PackPride.com.
The original article can be read below in full.
Historically, a president’s final term in the White House is spent tying up loose political ends to finalize the legacy of the administration and to clear the way for the party’s next candidate for election. Barack Obama has drawn sharp criticism relating to foreign policy, immigration, and health care reform through the first two Republican debates, but the President has an opportunity to head off the most damning criticism of his seven years of service before it’s mentioned in the next debate … his record of horrible picks in the NCAA tournament.
Obama’s fondness for picking the Tar Heels in the NCAA tournament has been well documented, and his connection to the UNC program has been strong throughout his presidency, including a pre-season visit to Chapel Hill, a basketball game on an aircraft carrier, and a presidential pardon for former UNC star Will Graves. Simply not picking the Tar Heels to win in a year where most consider Roy Williams and company to be the favorites would send a strong message. But that wouldn’t occur until March, which is far too down the road to save his legacy or help the Democrats in the 2016 election.
SportsChannel8’s investigate team has obtained records indicating that Obama is strongly considering usurping the authority of the NCAA and personally banning the 2015-16 UNC Tar Heels from the NCAA tournament. On a website called “Change.org”, a site created by the president to workshop his personal ideas with the American people (according to our intern who is really into politics via West Wing re-runs on Netflix), Obama has posted a poll asking for support for an NCAA ban.
Read the full document here.
