UNC cheating scandal, the NCAA strikes back

Submitted by Mr Miggle on

I know a lot of you are cynics, but this looks very bad for UNC. The NCAA dropped the ball in 2011 after UNC did a shoddy initial investigation into their fake classes. After a new investigation in 2014, the NCAA finally sent them a notice of allegations. This spring they replaced it with a watered down notice that would have mostly let  UNC off the hook.

UNC pushed their luck in August. Their response to the NCAA's gift was to admit some of the charges, but challenge their authority to punish UNC. After a recent meeting between the sides, the NCAA's response has been swift, especially by their standards. They sent a new notice that replaces the last one. Here are the main differences.

  1. They specifically charge both football and men's basketball. The last notice only named women's basketball.
  2. They expanded the time frame of their charges. Instead of 2005-2011, they now go back to 2002.
  3. They have replaced a failure to monitor charge with more serious ones; unethical conduct and providing impermissible benefits. The last one is especially significant as that steers the charges into mainstream NCAA violations. They left intact the most serious charge, lack of institutional control, which UNC has contested.

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/unc/article122420449.html

addenum: A good take on the situation from before this revised NCAA notice

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/08/10/will-u-north-carolinas-challenge-ncaas-authority-work

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fake classes

Everyone Murders

December 22nd, 2016 at 6:44 PM ^

NCAA, do I even know you anymore?  Actually showing some teeth on matters that ... like ... actually matter?

That new moral compass looks really good on you!  You should wear it more often.

Joined: 12/14/2010

MGoPoints: 65552

Frank Chuck

December 22nd, 2016 at 7:02 PM ^

...just like our program was destroyed by sanctions.

UNC implemented systemic academic cheating that spanned decades - plural - going back to the days of Dean Smith.

I want to see UNC burn and suffer a lost decade or two.

Joined: 05/01/2015

MGoPoints: 15846

jmblue

December 22nd, 2016 at 7:04 PM ^

I've never gotten over the '93 title game.  I think that's my most painful sports memory.  We had the better team and should have won.  It shouldn't have come down to that last possession with the timeout.   (And, I suspect that if we had won, the NCAA would not have asked us to vacate the title, either.)

I've irrationally disliked UNC basketball ever since.   Yeah, I'd derive a bit of schadenfreude from them going down.

 

Joined: 11/07/2008

MGoPoints: 102752

Mr Miggle

December 22nd, 2016 at 7:13 PM ^

classiifying the fake classes as impermissible benefits gives a guide to what kind of punishments could be levied. NCAA typically has punishments to match the offense.

Impermissible benefits usually lead to scholarship reductions and a loss of eligibility, (too late for that). Using ineligible players leads to scholarship reductions and vacating wins/titles. They've just gone all the way back to their win over the Fab Five. It involves a large number of athletes and they are alleging a concerted effort to cheat, not just blaming one rogue employee. 

It's not at all clear what they might have done with the previous charges other than probation. 

Joined: 10/07/2010

MGoPoints: 47592

charblue.

December 22nd, 2016 at 6:51 PM ^

that the Sgt. Shultz defense for allowing Roy Williamson to skate past official judgment for widespread academic fraud when he assumed authority and control for everything else in his program except academic standard record-keeping, makes you wonder about school leadership.

 

Joined: 05/25/2010

MGoPoints: 11384

UM Griff

December 22nd, 2016 at 8:40 PM ^

Under investigation for their men's basketball programs. If they have to vacate their championships, do we get to move up in their place? It is ironic that we are the other NCAA finalists in both cases.

Joined: 12/03/2016

MGoPoints: 9833

jmblue

December 22nd, 2016 at 10:17 PM ^

It's no different.  If the champion has to vacate, then there is simply no champion in the record books.  The NCAA will not award the title to someone else.

The only thing is that the NCAA is generally very reluctant to strip a team of its title.  It doesn't want those gaps in the records.  If we'd won the title, I don't think we'd have been asked to vacate it.  Chris Webber's relationship with Ed Martin was different than the other three guys' (he'd known Martin since middle school) and the NCAA could have ruled that Martin was a "family friend" and thus allowed to give gifts.  

 

Joined: 11/07/2008

MGoPoints: 102752

mgoblue0970

December 22nd, 2016 at 9:40 PM ^

What about the accreditation authorities?  How does UNC stay accredited in the face of such academic fraud.  

Eff the NCAA, they only punish the misdemeanors -- this wasn't 20 minutes of stretching.

Joined: 11/22/2008

MGoPoints: 18648