Toothless NCAA Couldn't Find Academic Violations at North Carolina, Tar Heels Get No Punishment
By Jason McIntyre
After 3+ years of investigating the University of North Carolina and its no-show classes – “paper courses” – the toothless NCAA couldn’t find a damn thing.
For what appeared to be about 18 years of academic fraud, UNC gets no punishment because the NCAA isn’t good at its job.
What a joke.
"“While student-athletes likely benefited from the so-called ‘paper courses’ offered by North Carolina, the information available in the record did not establish that the courses were solely created, offered and maintained as an orchestrated effort to benefit student-athletes,” said Greg Sankey, the panel’s chief hearing officer and commissioner of the Southeastern Conference. “The panel is troubled by the university’s shifting positions about whether academic fraud occurred on its campus and the credibility of the Cadwalader report, which it distanced itself from after initially supporting the findings. However, NCAA policy is clear. The NCAA defers to its member schools to determine whether academic fraud occurred and, ultimately, the panel is bound to making decisions within the rules set by the membership.”"
UNC lawyers spent an estimated $18 million to defend the school, and it clearly was money well spent. The Tar Heels will continue to make money in football and basketball, because if either of those problems were to take a major, multi-year dive, the rest of the athletic department would be in trouble.