3,100 students received at least one (or more) semesters of "poor work classes" rewarded with "high grades". Student athletes, particularly basketball & football athletes (the revenue generating sports) were steered to these "poor courses", and some athletes were actually enrolled in fake classes (i.e. completely fabricated, made up, did not exist).

 

Three (3) outside experts conducted an investigation of sample papers and concluded that forty percent (yes, 40%) of the papers were plagiarized (at least 25% or more).

 

Quite frankly, I find it hard to believe that anyone finds that acceptable, even in the charade that is college athletics.

After reading the article closely, I'm stunned that many people (including some on here) defend these activities. It's shocking that anyone would support this. Go Tar Heels! I guess.

Can somebody post a link to the specific rule(s) UNC has broken to cause this investigation?

I'm having trouble getting worked up about this. Call me a bit cynical when it comes to any school not taking care of athletes academically.

 

Plus in UNC's case it wasn't limited to athletes in these classes. Anyone could take these faux classes.

 

It's not as cut and dry as we hear. Can the NCAA punish a school for having a "cake" class offered to every student?

 

Then the school should be stripped of any academic credibility as well.. How you could be okay with this is mind blowing. UNC is considered a great academic institution, yet they do something like this. They should be held accountable, not just on the athletic side of it but from the accrediting agencies as well. UNC has even admitted that what they did was wrong, yet still within the rules. How anyone can defend it is.. Well, I just can't understand it. They more less flipped the bird to the the NCAA and the accrediting agencies and gave them a "sorry, we made a bad decision." For nearly 20 years..

3,100 students received at least one (or more) semesters of "poor work classes" rewarded with "high grades". Student athletes, particularly basketball & football athletes (the revenue generating sports) were steered to these "poor courses", and some athletes were actually enrolled in fake classes (i.e. completely fabricated, made up, did not exist).

 

Three (3) outside experts conducted an investigation of sample papers and concluded that forty percent (yes, 40%) of the papers were plagiarized (at least 25% or more).

 

Quite frankly, I find it hard to believe that anyone finds that acceptable, even in the charade that is college athletics.

Exactly! How anyone can find this acceptable says a lot about their ethics imo.

Then the school should be stripped of any academic credibility as well.. How you could be okay with this is mind blowing. UNC is considered a great academic institution, yet they do something like this. They should be held accountable, not just on the athletic side of it but from the accrediting agencies as well. UNC has even admitted that what they did was wrong, yet still within the rules. How anyone can defend it is.. Well, I just can't understand it. They more less flipped the bird to the the NCAA and the accrediting agencies and gave them a "sorry, we made a bad decision." For nearly 20 years..

I agree and have said so couple years ago when this came to light. The University should lose its accreditation.

I guess but has anyone shown that UNC set up these classes for all students as subterfuge for athletes?

 

Have we had a similar case previously?

 

This seems to be more of an issue for whatever organization accredits universities.

 

If the university deemed it a valid class for all students and athletes took advantage of an easy grade is it a sports issue or something else? Is it any different than taking a racquetball class like I did in 1985? Easy A.

 

Your smart enough to know the answer to that even if there isn't proof of it. Just like whomever set this class in place was smart enough that they knew the school would have an out by allowing non athletes in the class as well.

Also let's stop with the "how can you be okay with this" nonsense. Nobody here is okay with what's happening. There are some, however, that can easily understand how it's not as cut and dry for the NCAA as some of you want it to be.

Can somebody post a link to the specific rule(s) UNC has broken to cause this investigation?

 

Moral and Ethical rules. I will say whomever set up the classes was smarter than the NCAA, as they may not have broken any rules that the NCAA has written. The fact that UNC has said what was done is wrong but not against the NCAA rules, which again was a smart move. As the accrediting agencies were looking into it as well, which would have been worse for them than any NCAA punishment.

Moral and Ethical rules. I will say whomever set up the classes was smarter than the NCAA, as they may not have broken any rules that the NCAA has written. The fact that UNC has said what was done is wrong but not against the NCAA rules, which again was a smart move. As the accrediting agencies were looking into it as well, which would have been worse for them than any NCAA punishment.

 

You touched on my point. While it may be morally and ethically wrong, if it's not against any rule, what can the NCAA do? Curriculum and credit hours aren't in the NCAA's jurisdiction and they shouldn't be.

 

This is a curriculum issue. This is a school issue. This is an ethics issue. This is an accreditation issue. It's not an NCAA issue, IMO. At least not yet.

Also let's stop with the "how can you be okay with this" nonsense. Nobody here is okay with what's happening. There are some, however, that can easily understand how it's not as cut and dry for the NCAA as some of you want it to be.

 

I can't see how anyone is okay with it but I'm not just looking at it from the athletic side of things. UNC has pretty high standards to get into the school, yet they provide fake classes to everyone? As a parent, I would have an issue with paying a high tuition to have my kid go to a school that doesn't actually deliver the education they claim they do.

You touched on my point. While it may be morally and ethically wrong, if it's not against any rule, what can the NCAA do? Curriculum and credit hours aren't in the NCAA's jurisdiction and they shouldn't be.

 

This is a curriculum issue. This is a school issue. This is an ethics issue. This is an accreditation issue. It's not an NCAA issue, IMO. At least not yet.

 

I mentioned before that it's more of an accreditation issue to me. The whole thing with the NCAA is more less UNC just giving them a slap in the face by saying what we did was ethically wrong but you didn't write it into the rule book. Pretty sure the accrediting agencies are more upset about this than the NCAA is. But it's UNC, they're not going to lose their accreditation.

All that said, do I think UNC offers a good education? Yes I do and as much as I am a UK fan, I wouldn't care one bit if one of my kids wanted to go to UNC to get an education, I'd just need to look over their curriculum, lol. It's still a good school, they did screw up though and did it for athletics. Anyone that doesn't see that is wearing baby blue blinders.

Which has brought me to my same question a thousand times, how can basketball get in trouble? They broke 0 NCAA rules. They found loopholes and took advantage of it. Yes it is/was wrong, but at the end of the day there's nothing the NCAA can do only the accreditation agencies.

However this does turn out (if it ever does), I do find it extremely hilarious that at the time UofL was working toward joining the ACC that there was discussion that UofL might not make the cut because their academics were considered somehow "subpar" in comparison to the rest of the ACC's member schools' high standards.