OT: UNC Scandal. . . Shazaam! ANOA Ignites National "Interest"

[RUinPinehurst]

The NCAA's Amended Notice of Allegations presented to UNC has created quite an uproar nationally, as you may have noticed. Never before have NCAA allegations simply vanished without any explanation, being replaced by a much kinder and gentler new set of allegations, "kinder and gentler" at least on the surface, that is.

The timeline of the ANOA has eliminated all misdeeds before the Fall of 2005, despite the well-documented evidence that "paper" (fake) classes, forged grade changes, plagiarism, etc. all are traced back to 1989 and 1993, as indicated by SACS documentation and the Wainstein Report. In the Spring of 2005, by the way, UNC won a BB National Championship with no fewer than 10 AFAM majors, including Rashad McCants, who admittedly took four "paper" classes that Spring semester, and was gifted with four As, making the Dean's List while admittedly never having attended any class or performed any work.

So you have to ask: what exactly transpired between the NCAA and UNC's legion of attorneys, that resulted in this "switcheroo"? Some say UNC simply "out-lawyered" the NCAA, forcing the NCAA to retreat to a new version of an NOA that would spare UNC's storied MBB program from being significantly harmed. So the new NOA removes MBB and FB by name, and instead lumps them in under a "catch all" identifier wherein all sports programs were involved.

Mind you, the "simplified" wording of the ANOA can still lead to significant sanctions across all sports programs including MBB and FB. For that we will have to see, though. per the NCAA's COI assessment, which may take another six months. First, though, UNC gets the opportunity to issue its own response to the NCAA's ANOA, in 90 days.

In any case. . . David Ridpath published a pointed article on Forbes.com yesterday, that pretty much cuts to to core of this curious and maddening move by the NCAA. See below or online at:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bdavidr...c-perplexing-but-not-surprising/#5f30b0306bc9

_________________________________________

APR 26, 2016 @ 02:30 PM2,658VIEWS
NCAA Amended Notice of Allegations on UNC Perplexing, But Not Surprising

by B. David Ridpath

Surprise, surprise, surprise-in my best Gomer Pyle voice!

I must admit I was a bit surprised, but not shocked that the NCAA has now seriously amended its sanctions against the University of North Carolina yesterday. At first I thought theNCAA Amended Notice of Allegations (ANOA)was just some additions and tweaking to the originalNotice of Allegations (NOA)from last year that detailed extra benefits, failure to monitor, and lack of institutional control including mentioning the flagship men’s basketball program as a potential participant, along with the burgeoning football program. I was telling reporters exactly that yesterday until I was corrected. I could not imagine this new notice was now the complete story and a replacement for the original NOA. Then I see a tweet late yesterday from Brad Wolverton ofThe Chronicle of Higher Educationthat confirmed it actually was a complete replacement for the original NOA-something I have not seen before at this stage in the process. That was surprising to me and for the “nothing to see here” crowd, a victory, at least for the moment.

You all know the story and it permeated throughout the university. Anomalous classes, grade changes, sections created for athletes, plagiarism, a rogue secretary, faculty members, indifferent Deans and administrators, a whistleblower in Mary Willingham, academic advisors charged with keeping athletes eligible etc. etc. In my view, if there ever was an academic fraud case in NCAA athletics this was it. It has been comical to watch over the years how the university and the NCAA have responded via multiple reports and even the NCAA once declaring that there is nothing to see here-unless of course you are the Lady Tar Heel women’s basketball team.

In my view there is a lot to see here, and I am a bit flummoxed at the removal of the most serious allegations against football and men’s basketball and what seems to be a now direct target painted on the back of the Tar Heel women’s basketball program. Given the NCAA’s past inconsistencies and general unfairness of the process over the years, this really is what we all should have expected and maybe none of us ever should have held out hope the NCAA would do the right thing and send a message that academic integrity in college athletics is supposed to matter. Even with their recent feeble attempt to“clarify” standards for academic fraud, it will still be very easy for institutions to provide substandard educations and focus on eligibility for athletes-if they desire to. Without a transparent system of disclosure long advocated byThe Drake Group, this will continue to go on, but the silver lining is when schools are shamed publicly, they do change and I doubt UNC will ever go down this road again, but the temptation for others will always be there.

The NCAA could have sent a message as the current standards were clear and have been used in other cases-at least some of the time. The long and short of it is ultimately the NCAA wanted no part of this case and if they are able to run from an infractions case involving a major player like North Carolina they will do it. If there is enough pressure and facts from outside the organization, then they usually cave and sanction the big boys such as in theUniversity of Southern Californiacase (but alas they even screwed that up). However if they can find a loophole, they will jump on it. It took public pressure and great reporting from the Raleigh News and Observer and their crack reporting team lead by Dan Kane to shame the NCAA into coming back and UNC into the Wainstein Report. At the very least having the NCAA come back at least saved some face.

Thanks to (and I am not making this up) the former Parr Center of Ethics Director and women’s basketball advisor, Jan Boxill who went out of her way to “help” women’s basketball players academically, it has become easy low hanging fruit for the NCAA to attack while still claiming it cannot do anything about courses at a university for the other issues. I suppose that means even courses created and/or primarily used to support athletic eligibility? Even though there are numerous cases where they did just that, including Marshall University where I used to work. For more on when the NCAA has actually punished schools for courses that aided athletic eligibility please read an article I co-authored in the Journal of Legal Aspects of Sportwith Drs. Gerry Gurney and Eric Snyder of the University of Oklahoma entitledNCAA Academic Fraud Cases and Historical Consistency: A Comparative Content Analysis. The key to academic fraud is did the fraud affect the eligibility of the athlete and did members of the faculty or any staff participate? It is clear as a bell here that it did, but the NCAA has sought convenient cover that it uses only when needed (see Michigan and Auburn) to claim that it is out of their jurisdiction. You really cannot make this stuff up. The NCAA does a pretty good job itself as a straight man in what is a continuing comedy show in their enforcement division.

Rather than continuing to rehash what North Carolina and its athletic program has been mired in for years now, let’s turn the attention to the supposed arbiter of infractions and punishment-the NCAA itself, including the national office in Indianapolis. As someone who has been involved in NCAA infractions cases and research the process including being regarded by many as an expert ( I once testified in front of a congressional subcommittee on the inequities of NCAA enforcement and infractions), I have never seen allegations simply go away this far in advance of the Committee on Infractions hearing and I think the NCAA owes everyone an explanation here.

I have been vocal that the NCAA is on trial as much as UNC in this case and this is not just an “academic” issue because other students received the same benefit and the NCAA sometimes claims it cannot regulate academic curricular content at a member institution (let’s just leave NCAA initial and continuing eligibility standards out for now or we all may be ROTFLOAO). The initial NOA gave me a little hope that the NCAA Enforcement Staff was serious about bringing legitimate Level I claims against UNC that included football and men’s basketball. Now those are gone like a puff of smoke with nary a word from Indianapolis. Maybe there is a logical explanation but I cannot think of one. I would have loved to been a fly on the wall to hear the discussions that led to the new and sanitized NOA that we all read yesterday. Why would enforcement make those decisions? I personally am at a loss to explai.n but give props to UNC and their attorneys because the Enforcement staff would not have done this on their own. They need a little muscle to change, and they must have got some

UNC is certainly not out of the woods as failure to monitor and lack of institutional control are likely outcomes, but the punishment for football and men’s basketball will certainly be minimized, if there are any significant sanctions at all. Even though the NCAA Committee on Infractions has wide latitude as to what they find in the actual hearing and can apply to an institution, I think UNC can breathe a little easier now as it is unlikely that football and men’s basketball will suffer much more, but for Coach Sylvia Hatchell and the Lady Tar Heels the suffering may just be beginning for who appears to be the convenient scapegoat for this entire sorry mess, but I guess women’s basketball is just not that important in scheme of things.

B. David Ridpath, Ed.D.is the Kahandas Nandola Professor of Sports Business at Ohio University in the Department of Sports Administration in Athens, Ohio.Follow him on twitter@drridpath

 

[Ole Cabbagehead]

I wonder at what point people will latch on to the fact that they are going to help a men's program by burying a women's program. That is the clear switcheroo here... they are sacrificing the women's team to protect the men's team. Even though what - 22 of 25 of the first students to enroll in the fake class were men's basketball players?

If I was a women's rights / women's athletics person, I would not be amused by this ploy, or the fact that the NCAA is going for it. The most damning evidence all stacked up against the men's team, not the women's.

 

[RUinPinehurst]

I wonder at what point people will latch on to the fact that they are going to help a men's program by burying a women's program. That is the clear switcheroo here... they are sacrificing the women's team to protect the men's team. Even though what - 22 of 25 of the first students to enroll in the fake class were men's basketball players?

If I was a women's rights / women's athletics person, I would not be amused by this ploy, or the fact that the NCAA is going for it. The most damning evidence all stacked up against the men's team, not the women's.

There's that, an institutional offense of gender-bias that should reverberate through UNC and beyond.

Mind you, there's also an underlying "racial" offense that very few have dared to address, since UNC has historically recruited academically ill-suited African-American kids, and then steered them into a sham course of study focusing on. . . African and Afro-American Studies. Race remains the third rail of college sports.

Beyond that, there's the over-riding reality that now everyone knows the scope and breadth of their decades of cheating and how they bullied their way to a lesser set of allegations and "punishment," which will likely now get more "press" than had UNC simply taken its licks and showed some semblance of integrity, and then move on.

If I were an alumni of that institution, I would be livid, much more so than I already am, as a taxpayer of NC, helping to support my state's "Flagship" U.

 

[Scarlet_Scourge]

As a school they have their accreditation removed.

 

[rucoe89]

Wow -- this guy got to what is so wrong on so many levels. The NCAA (which includes Oliver Luck) seems to have no problem throwing the women's sports under the proverbial bus in what seems to be blatant rationalization attempt to protect the UNC flagship sports.

 

[imbazza2]

I wonder at what point people will latch on to the fact that they are going to help a men's program by burying a women's program. That is the clear switcheroo here... they are sacrificing the women's team to protect the men's team. Even though what - 22 of 25 of the first students to enroll in the fake class were men's basketball players?If I was a women's rights / women's athletics person, I would not be amused by this ploy, or the fact that the NCAA is going for it. The most damning evidence all stacked up against the men's team, not the women's.

This is just what a woman team is for, as they just do not pull in the TV eyeballs. As this is a southern school all the females know their place, respectful and obedient to the superior men. They should just lay down and take it. like the case in all the "alleged assault" cases the boy on the BB and FB commit, it is part of their culture and I bet all the docile females will support them being thrown under the bus for the betterment of the school and the boys teams. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

 

[RU-ROCS]

NCAA's an UNC's handling of the most significant case of academic fraud ever uncovered is absolutely disgusting. What little faith I had in the NCAA as a governing body is gone.

 

[ruready07]

NCAA's an UNC's handling of the most significant case of academic fraud ever uncovered is absolutely disgusting. What little faith I had in the NCAA as a governing body is gone.

you can't be upset with the ncaa.. they are a paper organization that has survived due to the strength of their mere existence and not so much because of their actions. The fault falls directly on unc and unc only. The ncaa, in their limited power, has tried to do something here.. but unc has lawyered up and tried everything they could to dismiss accountability. This is one of the most bold examples of a lack of accountability Ive ever seen and for anyone to defend unc is disgusting. Im all for giving underprivileged people an opportunity to succeed through athletics, but many of these athletes probably didnt even need this shortcut given to them. Its just so bad that I can't even get my thoughts together about it.

 

[srru86]

As a school they have their accreditation removed.

That would be really crushing. In a just world that is what would happen.

But I'm not sure the accreditor would pull the trigger. This is very rare to have a major prestige school engage in such long running and blatant fraud. Usually when an accreditation gets pulled it is because some rinky dink school is going bankrupt or selling degrees. Everything else is handled in a fashion of "We stopped doing that, cleaned things up" and the accreditor says "go forth and sin no more" and schedules a follow up review to ensure compliance.

It is astounding that the NCAA assumes the world is just going to forget the previous allegations.

 

[srru86]

There's that, an institutional offense of gender-bias that should reverberate through UNC and beyond.

That would be an interesting Title IX case. If the Department of Education brings a claim they bring Department of Justice lawyers along, not the Indianapolis gomers the NCAA apparently uses. Not to mention sovereign immunity.

If they violate the federal rules lots of US dollars are then at stake.

 

[RUScrew85]

NCAA's an UNC's handling of the most significant case of academic fraud ever uncovered is absolutely disgusting. What little faith I had in the NCAA as a governing body is gone.

Dude they looked the other way on a child rape coverup - you should have lost your faith in the NCAA then.

 

[RU#1fan]

I wonder at what point people will latch on to the fact that they are going to help a men's program by burying a women's program. That is the clear switcheroo here... they are sacrificing the women's team to protect the men's team. Even though what - 22 of 25 of the first students to enroll in the fake class were men's basketball players?

If I was a women's rights / women's athletics person, I would not be amused by this ploy, or the fact that the NCAA is going for it. The most damning evidence all stacked up against the men's team, not the women's.

Well there are doing the switcheroo with the Bathrooms down there ...so nothing surprises me.

 

[RU-ROCS]

Here is another good take on the NCAA's hypocrisy with UNC:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...all-football-could-avoid-punishment-from-ncaa

 

[Scarlet_Scourge]

Here is another good take on the NCAA's hypocrisy with UNC:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...all-football-could-avoid-punishment-from-ncaa

Good one, it appears that the national media is starting to perk up.

 

[Dpgru]

I have been saying this from the beginning and I will stick to it until proven wrong - the NCAA is not going to do anything to seriously hurt the a flagship program in the ACC. Also, the major networks and ESPN all of whom have contracts with college football and or the ACC specifically are not going to hurt UNC or the ACC. I hope to all that is holy that UNC gets pummeled by the NCAA but I can't believe it will happen.

 

[Knight Shift]

Dude they looked the other way on a child rape coverup - you should have lost your faith in the NCAA then.

But that is not what they (the NCCA) do. And it may be part of the reason they rolled things back and retreated on that.
Academic fraud and athletics, however, is right in their wheelhouse. But when the Exxon Valdez crashed and tarred most of Alaska, they basically got off scot free at the US Supreme Court. So think of UNC as the Exxon Valdez (they are Tarheels after all), and this is a lesson in life that if you have enough money and muscle and attorneys, you can get away with breaking the rules.

 

[RU-ROCS]

I have been saying this from the beginning and I will stick to it until proven wrong - the NCAA is not going to do anything to seriously hurt the a flagship program in the ACC. Also, the major networks and ESPN all of whom have contracts with college football and or the ACC specifically are not going to hurt UNC or the ACC. I hope to all that is holy that UNC gets pummeled by the NCAA but I can't believe it will happen.

I tend to agree, but this article from ESPN yesterday has some surprising criticism:
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bas...ar-heels-latest-ncaa-news-tough-make-sense-of

 

[koleszar]

I must say I am truly shocked by the wording on the new NOA. To totally act as though mens BB and FB were not a part of the original NOA is beyond dumbfounding. psu situation was not in their wheelhouse, this however is why the NCAA was formed. If they drop the ball on this one. It might be time to dissolve the NCAA and enact another governing body. I know technically the NCAA works for the schools but this is beyond absurd.
There has been whispers of this and in order to have fair play you need a governing body that can hold those responsible while dispensing fair and equal punishment. The NCAA drops the ball on this one after the Miami fiasco, those whispers might just turn into conversations. Then Emmert might just be looking for a new job. Just too many schools out there that don't benefit from this current arrangement.

 

[LC-88]

I wonder at what point people will latch on to the fact that they are going to help a men's program by burying a women's program. That is the clear switcheroo here... they are sacrificing the women's team to protect the men's team. Even though what - 22 of 25 of the first students to enroll in the fake class were men's basketball players?

If I was a women's rights / women's athletics person, I would not be amused by this ploy, or the fact that the NCAA is going for it. The most damning evidence all stacked up against the men's team, not the women's.

This will be UNC's and the NCAA's undoing.

 

[Dpgru]

I must say I am truly shocked by the wording on the new NOA. To totally act as though mens BB and FB were not a part of the original NOA is beyond dumbfounding. psu situation was not in their wheelhouse, this however is why the NCAA was formed. If they drop the ball on this one. It might be time to dissolve the NCAA and enact another governing body. I know technically the NCAA works for the schools but this is beyond absurd.
There has been whispers of this and in order to have fair play you need a governing body that can hold those responsible while
dispensing fair and equal punishment. The NCAA drops the ball on this one after the Miami fiasco, those whispers might just turn into conversations. Then Emmert might just be looking for a new job. Just too many schools out there that don't benefit from this current arrangement.

When you say that it is time to get a new governing body to whom are you referring? The p5 conferences clearly have a governing body that will not hold their feet to the fire so why should they change. Why would they switch to a body that will hold them accountable for their actions? I would think that they are perfectly happy with an inept and spineless governing body.

 

[buffalochicken21]

Did not have time to read the whole thing, but out-lawyered, and UNC begging to protect the flagship programs is absolutely right.

This is Pedd State all over again.

UNC is going to plead and beg to not sacrifice their flagship, ultra-valuable NCAA properties and they're going to win. Just like Pedd State.

 

[koleszar]

When you say that it is time to get a new governing body to whom are you referring? The p5 conferences clearly have a governing body that will not hold their feet to the fire so why should they change. Why would they switch to a body that will hold them accountable for their actions? I would think that they are perfectly happy with an inept and spineless governing body.

Like I said in my post not everyone(schools) is happy with the current arrangement. In the world of college athletics(basketball&football) there's a hell of a lot more have nots then haves. There's a lot of schools that are determined to do it the right way, then you have say what 20 to 30 schools that will cheat at all costs to win. And no I'm not talking about low level infractions here.

When I refer to a new governing body exactly that. One which has the schools best interests at hand, but is not beholden to them now like the NCAA. There has been talk of the P5 cutting away from the NCAA. Do you seriously think the majority of the schools are fine with the current situation and would set up the same type of ineffective governing body? Do it the right way, the money is going to still be there, just not at schools like Miami, Baylor and UNC for a few years. The argument that UNC is too big and makes them money doesn't hold water. If they're not there another school will take the reins.

 

[Dpgru]

Like I said in my post not everyone(schools) is happy with the current arrangement. In the world of college athletics(basketball&football) there's a hell of a lot more have nots then haves. There's a lot of schools that are determined to do it the right way, then you have say what 20 to 30 schools that will cheat at all costs to win. And no I'm not talking about low level infractions here.

When I refer to a new governing body exactly that. One which has the schools best interests at hand, but is not beholden to them now like the NCAA. There has been talk of the P5 cutting away from the NCAA. Do you seriously think the majority of the schools are fine with the current situation and would set up the same type of ineffective governing body? Do it the right way, the money is going to still be there, just not at schools like Miami, Baylor and UNC for a few years. The argument that UNC is too big and
makes them money doesn't hold water. If they're not there another school will take the reins.

Please don't misunderstand me, I agree with you as to what should be done but I don't see it happening when the power schools like UNC hold the cards. Now, there has been talk and some speculation that there will be a split away from the NCAA by the p5 schools (also called by some the super 64) and let the NCAA truly govern allnthe other schools that actually want to remain college sports teams and let the big guys play with a different set of rules governing their behavior. One of the things stopping it is the size and popularity of the NCAA mbb tournament - a cash cow no one wants to lose. But you are serially not wrong, I am just a skeptic.

 

[RUinPinehurst]

NCAA BB Analyst Jay Bilas sheds some light on the NCAA's "retreat" re: the UNC NOA/ANOA in an article from the N&O's Dan Kane. Bilas states the reason for the NCAA's dropping the "impermissible benefits" infraction for the fake classes was because the NCAA rules do not support it in policing matters of academic fraud.

Kane writes:

“Easy and fraudulent are different. The UNC matter is an accreditation issue, not an NCAA issue,” Bilas tweeted at 4:14 p.m., shortly after the notice’s release.

"He [Bilas] said the evidence from various reports and investigations that exposed a system of classes that never met and provided a high grade regardless of the quality of work was “academic fraud from the get-go.” But he said the NCAA’s rules do not give it the authority to make an infractions case out of the classes.

“What happened here was awful, you are not getting any argument from me,” Bilas said. “But the issue is, is this a question under NCAA rules of course legitimacy? And the NCAA doesn’t pass on those matters, so there’s nowhere for them to go on this.”

He compared the situation to a murder involving a college athletics program. That would be handled by law enforcement authorities, not the NCAA.

“We can say it’s a failing of the NCAA rules, they should do this or they should have contemplated this or the (college) presidents were mistaken in ... not allowing the NCAA to go into this area,” Bilas said. “But that’s what the rules say, and that’s all I’m saying.”

His view appears to be in line with the NCAA’s enforcement staff. They dropped an impermissible benefits charge that NCAA academic council members have said is a poor fit for academic cases because it was intended to cover things such as money, cars and other perks given to athletes. UNC still faces five serious charges, including a lack of institutional control.

The NCAA is expected to pass new rules that it says would better handle academic misconduct cases, but those rules would not come into play in the UNC case."

So the NCAA "rethought" its charges in the original NOA to UNC, and the result is this ANOA. Have to think UNC's legal team had something to do with the NCAA "rethinking" things. No one seems to be disputing that fake classes benefited the MBB and FB programs, keeping players academically eligible. It's just that this is an academic issue, not an athletic issue.

But what about the plagiarism by/for athletes and the forged grade changes for athletes? Academic fraud, also?

It's all about academic fraud. 100%. Got it. So UNC was successful in having the NCAA re-categorize the "fraud." They found weakness in the "rules" as written, and held the NCAA to its rules.

Apparently, it's OK for players to receive free grades in fake classes, but not OK for players to receive free cars, money, clothes, jewelry, etc., as that would be wrong and against the NCAA's rules.

And then it's also OK to recruit and "retain" players who are ill-equipped academically and keep them eligible to play, while not actually educating them while they are being retained. That's OK, too.

The NCAA apparently is taking the stance that it has no authority to punish athletic-related academic fraud within its member institutions, even if that fraud benefits athletic programs and student-athletes and administrators and coaches, even if coaches get a bonus that's tied to academic performance of his players.

Will still be interesting to see UNC's response to this ANOA, and then how the NCAA's COI handles the "punishment" phase later this year (or next?).

With the focus again on "academic fraud," though, the issue is thrown back on SACS, the accreditation agency that placed UNC on probation for one year. SACS has the ability and authority to take away UNC's accreditation. Of course, that will never happen.

For Kane's article, see: http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/unc/article74273272.html

 

[Knight Shift]

I found this comment to Pat Forde's story from a Syracuse fan interesting. Not that anyone here feels sorry for Syracuse, but where is the proportionality in punishment?

"As a Syracuse Orange fan this article disgusts me and further proves what an arbitrary piece of #$%$ the ncaa is. Jim Boeheim has wins vacated and loses scholarships over relatively minor violations he had no part of because a) 2 basketball players received a total of a couple thousand dollars from a booster for a fake job b) some players failed drug tests for pot and Syracuse didn't follow it's own policy of benching them, despite the fact that some schools don't even test for pot, and c) a couple players, including a Brazilian native taking college level courses not in his native language, get a little too much help from a tutor. Meanwhile, UNC runs a completely fraudulent academic program of fake classes for decades and one and done schools like Kentucky turn out players who leave school after a semester and a half of remedial classes, ie, they never take a real, actual college course. This is so ridiculous, but not surprising."

 

[rurising]

So the NCAA clearinghouse has the authority to deny a student athlete the opportunity to compete in college athletics due to lack of academic oversight by HIgh School administrations. Yet, they don't have the authority to punish a member of their 'own' organization for fraudulent academic activity.

 

[Abro1975]

NCAA BB Analyst Jay Bilas sheds some light on the NCAA's "retreat" re: the UNC NOA/ANOA in an article from the N&O's Dan Kane. Bilas states the reason for the NCAA's dropping the "impermissible benefits" infraction for the fake classes was because the NCAA rules do not support it in policing matters of academic fraud.

Kane writes:

“Easy and fraudulent are different. The UNC matter is an accreditation issue, not an NCAA issue,” Bilas tweeted at 4:14 p.m., shortly after the notice’s release.

"He [Bilas] said the evidence from various reports and investigations that exposed a system of classes that never met and provided a high grade regardless of the quality of work was “academic fraud from the get-go.” But he said the NCAA’s rules do not give it the authority to make an infractions case out of the classes.

“What happened here was awful, you are not getting any argument from me,” Bilas said. “But the issue is, is this a question under NCAA rules of course legitimacy? And the NCAA doesn’t pass on those matters, so there’s nowhere for them to go on this.”

He compared the situation to a murder involving a college athletics program. That would be handled by law enforcement authorities, not the NCAA.

“We can say it’s a failing of the NCAA rules, they should do this or they should have contemplated this or the (college) presidents were mistaken in ... not allowing the NCAA to go into this area,” Bilas said. “But that’s what the rules say, and that’s all I’m saying.”

His view appears to be in line with the NCAA’s enforcement staff. They dropped an impermissible benefits charge that NCAA academic council members have said is a poor fit for academic cases because it was intended to cover things such as money, cars and other perks given to athletes. UNC still faces five serious charges, including a lack of institutional control.

The NCAA is expected to pass new rules that it says would better handle academic misconduct cases, but those rules would not come into play in the UNC case."

So the NCAA "rethought" its charges in the original NOA to UNC, and the result is this ANOA. Have to think UNC's legal team had something to do with the NCAA "rethinking" things. No one seems to be disputing that fake classes benefited the MBB and FB programs, keeping players academically eligible. It's just that this is an academic issue, not an athletic issue.

But what about the plagiarism by/for athletes and the forged grade changes for athletes? Academic fraud, also?

It's all about academic fraud. 100%. Got it. So UNC was successful in having the NCAA re-categorize the "fraud." They found weakness in the "rules" as written, and held the NCAA to its rules.

Apparently, it's OK for players to receive free grades in fake classes, but not OK for players to receive free cars, money, clothes, jewelry, etc., as that would be wrong and against the NCAA's rules.

And then it's also OK to recruit and "retain" players who are ill-equipped academically and keep them eligible to play, while not actually educating them while they are being retained. That's OK, too.

The NCAA apparently is taking the stance that it has no authority to punish athletic-related academic fraud within its member institutions, even if that fraud benefits athletic programs and student-athletes and administrators and coaches, even if coaches get a bonus that's tied to academic performance of his players.

Will still be interesting to see UNC's response to this ANOA, and then how the NCAA's COI handles the "punishment" phase later this year (or next?).

With the focus again on "academic fraud," though, the issue is thrown back on SACS, the accreditation agency that placed UNC on probation for one year. SACS has the ability and authority to take away UNC's accreditation. Of course, that will never happen.

For Kane's article, see: http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/unc/article74273272.html

RUPinehurst,
I commend all the great linking you have done to keep us NJ /RU fans abreast of the goings on in this 'investigation'. It must pain you (as well as me) for a lot of us here to say 'We Told You So', that the NCAA would find some way to let the UNC Football and Basketball programs skate. And sure enough, that's exactly what happened.

 

[Scarlet_Scourge]

NCAA BB Analyst Jay Bilas sheds some light on the NCAA's "retreat" re: the UNC NOA/ANOA in an article from the N&O's Dan Kane. Bilas states the reason for the NCAA's dropping the "impermissible benefits" infraction for the fake classes was because the NCAA rules do not support it in policing matters of academic fraud.

Kane writes:

“Easy and fraudulent are different. The UNC matter is an accreditation issue, not an NCAA issue,” Bilas tweeted at 4:14 p.m., shortly after the notice’s release.

"He [Bilas] said the evidence from various reports and investigations that exposed a system of classes that never met and provided a high grade regardless of the quality of work was “academic fraud from the get-go.” But he said the NCAA’s rules do not give it the authority to make an infractions case out of the classes.

“What happened here was awful, you are not getting any argument from me,” Bilas said. “But the issue is, is this a question under NCAA rules of course legitimacy? And the NCAA doesn’t pass on those matters, so there’s nowhere for them to go on this.”

He compared the situation to a murder involving a college athletics program. That would be handled by law enforcement authorities, not the NCAA.

“We can say it’s a failing of the NCAA rules, they should do this or they should have contemplated this or the (college) presidents were mistaken in ... not allowing the NCAA to go into this area,” Bilas said. “But that’s what the rules say, and that’s all I’m saying.”

His view appears to be in line with the NCAA’s enforcement staff. They dropped an impermissible benefits charge that NCAA academic council members have said is a poor fit for academic cases because it was intended to cover things such as money, cars and other perks given to athletes. UNC still faces five serious charges, including a lack of institutional control.

The NCAA is expected to pass new rules that it says would better handle academic misconduct cases, but those rules would not come into play in the UNC case."

So the NCAA "rethought" its charges in the original NOA to UNC, and the result is this ANOA. Have to think UNC's legal team had something to do with the NCAA "rethinking" things. No one seems to be disputing that fake classes benefited the MBB and FB programs, keeping players academically eligible. It's just that this is an academic issue, not an athletic issue.

But what about the plagiarism by/for athletes and the forged grade changes for athletes? Academic fraud, also?

It's all about academic fraud. 100%. Got it. So UNC was successful in having the NCAA re-categorize the "fraud." They found weakness in the "rules" as written, and held the NCAA to its rules.

Apparently, it's OK for players to receive free grades in fake classes, but not OK for players to receive free cars, money, clothes, jewelry, etc., as that would be wrong and against the NCAA's rules.

And then it's also OK to recruit and "retain" players who are ill-equipped academically and keep them eligible to play, while not actually educating them while they are being retained. That's OK, too.

The NCAA apparently is taking the stance that it has no authority to punish athletic-related academic fraud within its member institutions, even if that fraud benefits athletic programs and student-athletes and administrators and coaches, even if coaches get a bonus that's tied to academic performance of his players.

Will still be interesting to see UNC's response to this ANOA, and then how the NCAA's COI handles the "punishment" phase later this year (or next?).

With the focus again on "academic fraud," though, the issue is thrown back on SACS, the accreditation agency that placed UNC on probation for one year. SACS has the ability and authority to take away UNC's accreditation. Of course, that will never happen.

For Kane's article, see: http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/unc/article74273272.html

I think I just throw up in my mouth...:confused: