A disturbing statement released Friday by UNC administrators said the NCAA will not pursue sanctions based on present information about the worst academic scandal in memory.
UNC administrators updated the NCAA on Aug. 23 about recent findings
in the academic scandal involving the African and Afro-American Studies department.
Julius Peppers’ transcript, which was accidentally
posted on a UNC website, implies the alleged academic fraud in the department might have extended much further back than originally thought.
The NCAA’s decision to cease pursuing the sanctions after learning of these findings shows its complicity in the subjugation of academics to the interests of athletics at member institutions.
If the available information about the scandal truly did indicate that NCAA rules were not violated, then the NCAA ought to revise those rules to prioritize academics more than they do.
UNC administrators first notified NCAA officials of possible academic issues with student athletes more than a year ago.
Administrators commissioned an internal review to see if there was
academic impropriety, but limited the investigation to one department and to courses taught between the summer of 2007 and the summer of 2011.
The NCAA, content to rely on UNC’s internal investigation’s findings
despite the obvious conflict of interest, sent only a single enforcement official to Chapel Hill.
The internal review, concluded in May, revealed that 52 of the 616 courses investigated between 2007 and 2009 had little or no instruction.