FatHobbit;1877242 wrote:So no penalties for North Carolina? I've only heard/read about the outrage they were able to get off with no penalties. But was the problem the university offered a bunch of easy classes that anyone could take? I remember when everyone was outraged that Andy Katzenmoyer took aids awareness and basket weaving in summer school to stay eligible. If it's a legit class that anyone can take, i don't really see the problem with it. Am i missing something?
There were a bunch of courses in the African American Studies Department that were advertised as lecture classes, but were actually more of an independent study. Class participants basically researched and wrote a 25-30 page paper and other than that, there was minimal course work for the class. Additionally, an administrative assistant did most of the grading of the papers for the professor, which is against university policy. The classes were available to the entire student body, not just athletes. They were basically your typical GPA boosting classes, but since they weren't taught in the manner they were supposed to be, and the professor wasn't actually doing the grading, they were deemed to be fraudulent. SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) investigated the matter and put the University of North Carolina on probation. Any further wrongdoing would lead to loss of accreditation and loss of state funding.
The NCAA was trying to punish North Carolina for this, but realized it wasn't part of their bylaws and was out of their jurisdiction. They then amended the Notice of Allegations twice in an effort to find a way to punish UNC, eventually citing that student-athletes received impermissible benefits because counselors were "steering" them to these courses, assisting them by e-mailing assignments to them while they were on road trips, and giving them priority scheduling due to their busy schedules. The problem is that that type of thing happens at every school in the country, and the NCAA couldn't prove that the athletics department itself did anything wrong. They also couldn't prove that the easy courses were created specifically to aid student athletes and keep them eligible.
Basically, the NCAA knew they had no case according to its bylaws, but attempted to punish UNC anyway. Finally, faced with the possibility that UNC would take the NCAA to court and win, the Committee on Infractions actually followed its bylaws and determined that the athletic department had not committed any violations. However, the NCAA spent several years, and millions of dollars to arrive at this decision, all while knowing that its bylaws had no grounds to punish UNC athletics. Typical NCAA.
