OT: UNC Scandal... What's Missing from the NCAA's Case?

[RUinPinehurst]

Dane Kane of Raleigh's N&O posted the article below online last night at: http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/unc/article23139921.html

The NOA actually does address a start date of this scandal as 1993 in allegation #5. Still, the NCAA only started with that date because that was the start date of the Wainstein Report, as dictated by UNC as they directed and funded that report.

UNC's own response to the southeast accreditation agency (SACS) indicates a "fake class" start date of 1989, again, involving Dean Smith's program, wherein 23 of the first 25 student-athletes to take these fake classes were Smith's BB players.

SACS is to issue its response to UNC's response to charges of academic misdeeds on June 11. This will publicly challenge the NCAA's timeline of 1993. Smith's program was tainted. A total of 54 of his players were enrolled in fake classes during the eight-year period leading to his retirement.

There will be more light shed on this. Just waiting to see what local, regional, and/or national journalist will have the cojones to challenge the UNC PR machine and address the origins of the scandal, and WHO actually initiated it.

As is, the NCAA's NOA does not name the names of current or former coaches, or ADs. The problem, you see, is this UNC scandal is just an "institutional" wrongdoing. No actual people were responsible. Therefore no actual people will be held accountable or punished. Horseshat? Certainly, so.
_______________________________

What’s missing in the NCAA’s case against UNC

The NCAA’s Notice of Allegations against UNC in the academic fraud case relies heavily on prior university investigations, particularly that of Kenneth Wainstein, a former federal prosecutor. But there were aspects of the scandal the NCAA did not take up, including:

• ▪ Wainstein’s report cited improper activity as far back as 1993, but the NCAA’s report begins with the fall of 2002 through the summer of 2011. It’s unclear why, but that timeframe knocks out one of the most significant pieces of evidence in the scandal – the transcript of former football and basketball player Julius Peppers, now one of the NFL’s top defensive players.
  
  ▪ Wainstein found 329 students would have had a GPA below a 2.0 for at least one semester were it not for paper classes. More than half were athletes. There is no such analysis in the NCAA’s report.
  
  ▪ Wainstein found that Debby Crowder, the architect of the paper classes, began disguising them as lecture-style in 1999 to help athletes and other students get around what was believed to be a limit on the number of independent studies one could use toward a degree. The NCAA doesn’t report a problem with those limits until the fall of 2006, when the university clarified its definition of an independent study.
  
  ▪ Wainstein found numerous examples of papers submitted by athletes and other students that were heavily plagiarized. The report does not cite any athletes for academic misconduct over plagiarized papers.
  
  ▪ Shortly after Wainstein’s report, the NCAA received evidence that a football player was admitted into graduate school after the start of the 2003-04 academic year despite having no graduate exam and a low GPA. He skipped classes, exams and assignments and flunked out in one semester, but played nearly all the football games that season. That led an academic official to write an angry letter to John Blanchard, a former senior associate athletic director. The case draws no mention in the report. The former graduate school admissions director who provided the evidence declined to be interviewed.
  
  – Dan Kane

 

[RUinPinehurst]

And in typical Carolina fashion, amidst all the scandal "news" and potential damage, they have the audacity to do this, as reported by Greg Barnes via "Inside Carolina":

UNC Finalizing New Contract for Roy Williams


North Carolina officials are furthering their unwavering support of Roy Williams in the form of a new contract.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – UNC is finalizing a contract extension for head basketball coach Roy Williams.

The UNC Board of Trustees is in the process of approving the new contract, according to sources familiar with the proceedings. Details have yet to be released by the University.

The news coincides with the arrival and public release of the NCAA’s Notice of Allegations pertaining to its examination of academic irregularities in UNC’s AFAM department.

The notice detailed that Roy Williams was interviewed late last year by the NCAA as part of its investigation, but was not named in any of the allegations.

The contract extension continues a trend by university officials to show their steadfast support for the Hall of Fame coach.

In November, athletics director Bubba Cunningham made an impromptu appearance on Williams’s weekly radio show to defend the 12th-year UNC head coach amidst media criticism stemming from the Wainstein Report, which found that Williams was not involved in the AFAM scandal. Cunningham reiterated his support of Williams in a December interview with InsideCarolina.com.

Joel Curran, UNC’s vice chancellor for communications and public affairs, took a firmer stance in March following a Sports Illustrated cover story questioning how much Williams knew about the scandal. Curran said it was “unfair to continue to point fingers at Roy” in light of the Wainstein Report and the lead investigator’s accompanying remarks.

Williams’s last contract extension came in October 2011. His base salary was set at $333,938 through 2018 with supplemental income by UNC ranging from $1.35 million to $1.65 million.

Online at: http://www.scout.com/college/north-...e&hootPostID=93bfbc0a2cf9d7ee94e8fae1b0e74f57

 

[LotusAggressor]

What's missing is any evidence that Cleveland State did anything wrong.

 

[RUinPinehurst]

Bloomberg's Paul Barrett is calling out the NCAA. Good for him. More national media need to step up and call the NCAA and UNC out on this. See Barrett's article below or online at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ant-to-punish-unc-basketball-for-fake-classes


Proof That NCAA Doesn’t Really Want to Punish UNC Basketball for Fake Classes

North Carolina’s top athletics officials and marquee sport largely get a pass in the worst academic-fraud episode in recent memory

by Paul Barrett
June 5, 2015 — 11:11 AM EDT

The NCAA wants to let UNC off easy. The organization’s academic-fraud findings against the University of North Carolina at first glance seem tough, but the accusations are actually crafted to protect a storied men’s basketball program.

Understanding the NCAA charges matters a lot. How the college sports world reacts to the findings—and UNC’s defensive response—will help determine the punishment the NCAA eventually imposes. The punishment, in turn, will shape the lessons drawn from the fiasco. If the outcry is loud and angry, there’s a chance the powers that be at NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis, who are nothing if not image-conscious, will rethink their instinct to protect one of the most valuable franchises in the $16 billion-a-year college sports industry.

The charges sound severe ...
The NCAA found that to keep Tar Heels athletes eligible, UNC officials turned in assignments on players’ behalf, suggested inflated grades, and operated a system of fake lecture courses requiring little to no actual academic work. The NCAA enumerated this corruption in five “Level 1” violations—the most egregious sort—including a comprehensive “lack of institutional control” over the sports program. The NCAA sent the charges to UNC last month, and the school released them on Thursday as part of a protracted back-and-forth that will continue for the balance of 2015 and could stretch into next year before the NCAA determines how to punish UNC.

... but give a pass to those in charge of men’s basketball
This entire scandal has its roots in UNC’s desperation to field championship men’s basketball teams. The school’s premier sports franchise has brought home national trophies, most recently in 2009 and 2005. Previous investigations, including one sponsored by UNC and released last fall, showed that the school ran a “shadow curriculum” in its former African and Afro-American Studies department. The black-studies department offered hundreds of fake classes disproportionately populated with athletes—and men’s basketball and football players in particular.

Yet longtime men’s basketball coach Roy Williams has only a walk-on role in the NCAA’s findings, suggesting he’s a mere bystander. Instead, the NCAA comes down hard on marginal campus figures, including a former women’s basketball academic adviser and a former black-studies chairman. Whistle-blowers Mary Willingham, a former UNC athlete tutor, and Jay Smith, a tenured history professor, had this to say in a trenchant blog post:

We find it especially revealing, and discouraging, that Jan Boxill [the women’s basketball adviser] was singled out for one of the five named allegations. Boxill worked in a system where all who had regular contact with athletes were complicit in a charade. These people included admissions officials, athletic directors, academic counselors, coaches, and compliance staff for football, men’s basketball, and many other sports.

The NCAA bizarrely sees academic fraud as a ‘benefit’
The college sports regulator has long been obsessed with policing athletes’ freebies—steak dinners, automobiles, the occasional cash-stuffed envelope—while overlooking egregious academic fraud. In its UNC allegations, the NCAA describes placement in fake paper classes and other forms of cheating as “impermissible benefits to student-athletes that were not generally available to the student body.”

Think about that for a moment: The NCAA is describing access to phony courses as a “benefit.” By intellectually crippling their star athletes, UNC did these young men (and women) a favor? In fact, it’s exactly the opposite. Academic fraud was a hidden penalty—granted, one that many athletes voluntarily subjected themselves to—not some kind of prize.

UNC’s reaction? Fight! Fight! Fight!
UNC Chancellor Carol Folt said in a written statement: “We will respond to the notice using facts and evidence to present a full picture of our case. Although we may identify some instances in the NCAA’s notice where we agree and others where we do not, we are committed to continue pursuing a fair and just outcome for Carolina.”

Note that Folt refers to UNC’s arguing its “case” and seeking a “just outcome” for the institution, as if this were an adversarial court proceeding. For years now, UNC has compromised its heritage as one of the best public universities in the country by trying to minimize the extent of the intellectual rot within its flagship campus. This matters not because UNC is unique, but because its problems are all too typical. Rather than admit there’s something fundamentally wrong with the college sports business, UNC’s top administrators have whitewashed past sins. The NCAA seems eager to help, perhaps because the Tar Heels play a vital role in the March Madness basketball tournament that’s one of the most celebrated elements of a multibillion-dollar industry.

 

[beaced]

Bloomberg's Paul Barrett is calling out the NCAA. Good for him. More national media need to step up and call the NCAA and UNC out on this. See Barrett's article below or online at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ant-to-punish-unc-basketball-for-fake-classes

NM

Proof That NCAA Doesn’t Really Want to Punish UNC Basketball for Fake Classes

North Carolina’s top athletics officials and marquee sport largely get a pass in the worst academic-fraud episode in recent memory

by Paul Barrett
June 5, 2015 — 11:11 AM EDT

The NCAA wants to let UNC off easy. The organization’s academic-fraud findings against the University of North Carolina at first glance seem tough, but the accusations are actually crafted to protect a storied men’s basketball program.

Understanding the NCAA charges matters a lot. How the college sports world reacts to the findings—and UNC’s defensive response—will help determine the punishment the NCAA eventually imposes. The punishment, in turn, will shape the lessons drawn from the fiasco. If the outcry is loud and angry, there’s a chance the powers that be at NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis, who are nothing if not image-conscious, will rethink their instinct to protect one of the most valuable franchises in the $16 billion-a-year college sports industry.

The charges sound severe ...
The NCAA found that to keep Tar Heels athletes eligible, UNC officials turned in assignments on players’ behalf, suggested inflated grades, and operated a system of fake lecture courses requiring little to no actual academic work. The NCAA enumerated this corruption in five “Level 1” violations—the most egregious sort—including a comprehensive “lack of institutional control” over the sports program. The NCAA sent the charges to UNC last month, and the school released them on Thursday as part of a protracted back-and-forth that will continue for the balance of 2015 and could stretch into next year before the NCAA determines how to punish UNC.

... but give a pass to those in charge of men’s basketball
This entire scandal has its roots in UNC’s desperation to field championship men’s basketball teams. The school’s premier sports franchise has brought home national trophies, most recently in 2009 and 2005. Previous investigations, including one sponsored by UNC and released last fall, showed that the school ran a “shadow curriculum” in its former African and Afro-American Studies department. The black-studies department offered hundreds of fake classes disproportionately populated with athletes—and men’s basketball and football players in particular.

Yet longtime men’s basketball coach Roy Williams has only a walk-on role in the NCAA’s findings, suggesting he’s a mere bystander. Instead, the NCAA comes down hard on marginal campus figures, including a former women’s basketball academic adviser and a former black-studies chairman. Whistle-blowers Mary Willingham, a former UNC athlete tutor, and Jay Smith, a tenured history professor, had this to say in a trenchant blog post:

We find it especially revealing, and discouraging, that Jan Boxill [the women’s basketball adviser] was singled out for one of the five named allegations. Boxill worked in a system where all who had regular contact with athletes were complicit in a charade. These people included admissions officials, athletic directors, academic counselors, coaches, and compliance staff for football, men’s basketball, and many other sports.

The NCAA bizarrely sees academic fraud as a ‘benefit’
The college sports regulator has long been obsessed with policing athletes’ freebies—steak dinners, automobiles, the occasional cash-stuffed envelope—while overlooking egregious academic fraud. In its UNC allegations, the NCAA describes placement in fake paper classes and other forms of cheating as “impermissible benefits to student-athletes that were not generally available to the student body.”

Think about that for a moment: The NCAA is describing access to phony courses as a “benefit.” By intellectually crippling their star athletes, UNC did these young men (and women) a favor? In fact, it’s exactly the opposite. Academic fraud was a hidden penalty—granted, one that many athletes voluntarily subjected themselves to—not some kind of prize.

UNC’s reaction? Fight! Fight! Fight!
UNC Chancellor Carol Folt said in a written statement: “We will respond to the notice using facts and evidence to present a full picture of our case. Although we may identify some instances in the NCAA’s notice where we agree and others where we do not, we are committed to continue pursuing a fair and just outcome for Carolina.”

Note that Folt refers to UNC’s arguing its “case” and seeking a “just outcome” for the institution, as if this were an adversarial court proceeding. For years now, UNC has compromised its heritage as one of the best public universities in the country by trying to minimize the extent of the intellectual rot within its flagship campus. This matters not because UNC is unique, but because its problems are all too typical. Rather than admit there’s something fundamentally wrong with the college sports business, UNC’s top administrators have whitewashed past sins. The NCAA seems eager to help, perhaps because the Tar Heels play a vital role in the March Madness basketball tournament that’s one of the most celebrated elements of a multibillion-dollar industry.