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Creative Commons/Flickr Daniel X. O'Neil, http://bit.ly/2avEtNS

The Atlantic Coast Conference has fined Louisville and Virginia Tech $25,000 each after reviewing the findings of a Wake Forest investigation that concluded a former Demon Deacons assistant coach-turned-broadcaster leaked game plans to opponents.

Commissioner John Swofford said in a statement Saturday that he is "deeply disturbed something like this would occur."

The league said its review and follow-up discussions with the schools indicated that game plan information for four of Wake Forest's games was provided to three schools over a three-year period from 2014-16 — Virginia Tech in 2014, Louisville in 2016 and Army in both 2014 and '16.

Wake Forest beat both the Hokies (6-3 in double overtime) and Army (24-21) in 2014. Army beat the Demon Deacons 21-13 on Oct. 29 — two weeks before a trip to Louisville in which they lost 44-12 and began to suspect a security breach.

The announcement came four days after former Wake Forest assistant and radio analyst Tommy Elrod was fired after the school determined he shared or attempted to share inside information.

"Sportsmanship and ethical values are at the core of competitive integrity," Swofford said, "and in these instances, those were missing."

The ACC says the amounts of the fines are the highest allowed by the league's bylaws. The announcement came a day after Louisville said co-offensive coordinator Lonnie Galloway was suspended for the Citrus Bowl following its internal review, and the ACC said in its statement that it "is fully supportive" of that suspension.

An Army spokesman also said Saturday that it will investigate its role in the scandal, with Superintendent Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen ordering athletic director Boo Corrigan to open an investigation that will be conducted by a U.S. Army officer.

Elrod has not returned phone calls or text messages, and his lawyer — former Wake Forest player James Quander — has declined to comment ever since the school released its findings.

Wake Forest began its review after documents related to its game plan for the Louisville game on Nov. 12 were discovered at the Cardinals' stadium.

Coach Dave Clawson revealed four days later that school officials were investigating a possible security breach and Wake Forest announced its findings Tuesday night — absolving the current staff and players and pinning the blame solely on Elrod, a former player in the 1990s and assistant under Jim Grobe who went into broadcasting when he was not retained during the coaching change to Clawson following the 2013 season.

Academy spokesman Matt Faulkner confirmed Army's involvement Wednesday night but did not have any additional details.

A day later, Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock said a former unidentified Hokies assistant was provided with "some game plan information" before their game in 2014 but that retired coach Frank Beamer had no knowledge of it and the assistant was not retained when Justin Fuente replaced him after last season.

wake forest university #wakey leaks #tommy elrod #acc

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An assistant coach at the University of Louisville received game preparation information from Wake Forest broadcaster Tommy Elrod, according to school officials. The Cardinals beat the Demon Deacons in a fourth quarter rout in November, but none of WFU's new plays had apparently been used. Credit: Perthsider/Wikipedia, Creative Commons, http://bit.ly/2lHc7EN

Wake Forest University has cut ties with one of its radio analysts, Tommy Elrod, over allegations he slipped the football team's plans to coaches at the University of Louisville before the rivals met in November.

On Wednesday, officials in Louisville admitted that one of the team's assistant coaches, Lonnie Galloway, had been in touch with Elrod and received information. But what comes next is uncertain, especially after the Cardinals had a great season, featuring a 9-3 record, a bowl bid, and a newly-minted Heisman Trophy winner.

Elrod – a former player and coach for Wake Forest – has been let go from broadcaster IMG over the situation. But the statement from the University of Louisville did not indicate any action would be taken against Galloway.

To find out more about how the story of possible colllusion between Elrod and Galloway is playing in Louisville, WFDD's Sean Bueter called up WFPL's Rick Howlett, who covers Cardinal athletics.

Interview Highlights On what the University of Louisville’s administration is saying:

I don't know. It sounds as though the investigation is continuing and perhaps maybe something will come up after the bowl game is over or maybe sooner, if some new evidence comes up.

But when all this broke back in November, coach Bobby Petrino was was quick to shoot it down. He said, you know, “we don't know anything about this. We play with the utmost level of sportsmanship." And kind of just left it at that. The game itself U-of-L won 44-12…but [the Cardinals] were trailing for much of the game. So that would seem to suggest that they really didn't have their hands on anything effective. So you know whether there’s going to be another shoe drop here we'll just have to wait and see.

On how the fans are reacting:

There hasn't been much reaction really from the fan base. Perhaps that's because they've been preoccupied with some other things. They were in the hunt for the national championship there for a while. And Lamar Jackson became the first U-of-L player…to win the Heisman Trophy. They’re a little bit swallowed up in all that excitement. So there really hasn't been much said about it.

Now that the statement has come out from Tom Jurich, though, I can see social media lighting up and the message boards and all that. So I'm sure there's going to be some chatter about it from here on out.

On whether this news puts an asterisk on a successful season at University of Louisville:

I don't think so. If what Jurich said here is accurate, that none of the information was actually used in the game, you know perhaps...I'm just guessing this is my personal opinion, there could be some disciplinary action within the staff of the assistant coach there for accepting that information. But if it hasn't been used, you know, apparently, there was no compromise and they won the game fair and square.

So, we'll see what happens but I don't see this having a big effect on U-of-L's season, which has been very good – a little bit disappointing, more disappointing than they had set out to be – but a great season for U-of-L nonetheless.

wake forest university #football #sports #wakey leaks #louisville #wfpl

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