UNC Scandal: What’s the End Game?

It’s a surreal world we occupy when the N&O, Gregg Doyel and #WPN are all working together.

For decades we’ve endured the arrogant elitism of The Carolina Way, knowing it never passed muster. And now, after their precious creed has failed them, the UNC faithful have responded mostly with passive indifference and refused to be held accountable by the lowly among us. Instead of demanding better, they’ve lowered the standard — everyone does it, after all – and have become firmly entrenched in spin and lies, hopeful this nonsense will all just fade away. But hope isn’t a strategy, and those of us who’ve long-suffered the unflinching indignation by every bastard born and bred that The Carolina Way is a superior standard are unwilling to let this die easy.

We’re enjoying the journey, sure, but what exactly is the end game here? It’s a fair question and, well, perspective matters.

For the ever-inconsistent NCAA, fresh off its self-empowering ruling against Penn State, where its jurisdiction was questionable and due process was waived: continued avoidance of Pandora’s Box. After all, the NCAA will remind you that academic fraud at a member institution is outside its jurisdiction (except where Calipari is involved).

For lowly blogs like SFN: validation. And for the local, traditional media: renewed credibility. For nearly two years, citizen-bloggers and the lunatic fringe on message boards scooped the traditional media, which appeared overwhelmed by – and oft-indifferent to – the dynamic nature and real-time pace of the internet and social media. Every tweet by an athlete and every bumbling lie and errant comment by Baddour, Thorp & Co. was documented and scrutinized on blog posts and message boards. Through it all, UNC feigned cooperation and demanded we accept the results of their “review,” and then showed disdain when we wouldn’t. The more UNC folks said, the worse it got. SFN’s Old MacDonald, et al., kept the scandal on life support until the local and, eventually, finally, national media showed up. Once Dan Kane was unleashed, this journey found its flavor.

For Kane, who has morphed into one of those flying Great Whites off the coast of South Africa: legitimacy. Kane took momentum from Yahoo!’s Wetzel and Robinson on the football prongs, and tactfully charged onto the scene of academic fraud, where he started asking the questions other local media outlets wouldn’t dare. Turns out, he wasn’t the puppet to which the UNC Media Spin Machine had long-grown accustomed. Kane could soon capitalize on the opportunity with a best-seller and a career leap to a national outlet like the new NBCSN (you may recall the impossibly-intolerable Skip Bayless built his entire career off his coverage of the SMU scandal).

For State fans, who endured the despair of the 90’s as a result of self-sanctions from our own inept administration and the self-righteous punishment by the UNC Board of Governors: the reckoning. Witnessing the shame of asterisks going up and banners coming down over at The Flagship would be a momentous event for Our State. Jimmy V was vilified by the local media for far less; his crime: breaking “the spirit, not the letter” of the law by not knowing what was going on in his athletic department (background here). Unlike over in Chapel Hill, there was no institutional academic fraud, which, because of UNC’s possible violation of FERPA, we now know dates back to at least 1998, and possibly traces as far back as the early 90’s when the African & Afro-American Studies Department was created. We suffered mightily, and a decade of the Matt Doherty years is exactly what they deserve.

For the “Public Ivy” academics: restored integrity. Sure, it’s a simple reality that athletes everywhere have been taking easy classes since the ball was invented. And those of us who had to get by C-walls in Dynamics and Differential Equations aren’t suggesting those we root for on Saturdays must all pursue technical degrees. But there’s a Grand Canyon between easy courses and fake ones created solely to maintain eligibility for athletes who can’t pass a basic math course or get better than a D in basic English, Drama and Stagecraft. How do you get a diploma from a renowned university without passing a single math course? Think about it: the institutional fraud at UNC has effectively ensured that many of its student-athletes will be unemployable if they “go pro in something other than sports.” Yet, no one over there seems shamed by that.

And finally, for the scores of Carolina fans, Wal-Mart and alumni alike: some long-overdue humility.

Ok, maybe that last one is a bridge too far.

About LRM

Charter member of the Lunatic Fringe and a fan, loyal to a fault.

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95 Responses to UNC Scandal: What’s the End Game?

  1. JohnGalt78 08/17/2012 at 8:14 AM #

    Independent my arse. It absolutely does not matter who Twerp “asks” to preform an audit, it will be biased. Imagine the accused being allowed to select the jury, prosecutor and judge. Duh, how ya think that’s going to turn out?

  2. fullmoon1 08/17/2012 at 8:58 AM #

    Dang mista wolf- what you described would look great airbrushed on the side of a van!

  3. Pack78 08/17/2012 at 9:24 AM #

    Sounds like ORW is soon to join Deano in dementia-land (NOT a shot at folks and their families dealing with this condition)…

    http://blogs.newsobserver.com/uncnow/unc-coach-roy-williams-serious-mistakes-were-made

  4. fullmoon1 08/17/2012 at 9:46 AM #

    I clicked the above link and Roy’s answers seem a bit more damning in writing than on the radio. I find it odd unc claiming this is the result of an internal investigation.

  5. JohnGalt78 08/17/2012 at 10:06 AM #

    GREAT piece here from ESPN’s Dana O’Neil especially in light of the Rodney Purvis situation: “Get a taste of this NCAA baloney”

    http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/8243779/north-carolina-tar-heels-academic-scandal-exemplifies-ncaa-hypocrisy

  6. JSRy2k 08/17/2012 at 10:49 AM #

    Pack78, this is my favorite part of that interview:
    “on whether he was aware of any of these kinds of issues he arrived at UNC nine years ago:
    ‘Marc, I’m not sure I understand exactly what you said but I’ll answer it this way – but again I’m not sure exactly what you asked there, and it’s not probably anything wrong with the question, just maybe my intelligence…'”

    Sounds to me like Ol’ Roy’s playing dodgeball.

  7. Wufpacker 08/17/2012 at 11:48 AM #

    ^ My thought as well. And not very well either. Reminded me of the reply Mayor Adam West gave in an old FG episode:

    “That’s a great question citizen and I thank you for it. I think it’s great that we live in a town where you can ask questions because without questions we’d just have answers. And an answer without a question is just a statement.”

  8. MP 08/17/2012 at 12:06 PM #

    ^ Haha.

    Roy using his “Huck” routine to defend UNC in this cesspool is the height of irony. You could practically come up with an Andy Griffith Show episode using this cast of characters.

  9. JohnGalt78 08/17/2012 at 1:38 PM #

    Ya’ll, in case you’ve never done it, visit the Tarhell Blog. It’s just a really fun the read.

    http://www.tarheelblog.com/

    As an example:

    “As we noted here, it is clear UNC basketball players began to move away from AFAM as a major as Roy’s tenure progressed to the point Mike Copeland, who graduated in 2009, was the last such major on UNC’s basketball roster. Obviously additional digging, especially into 2004-2006 could produce more questions about the basketball team’s involvement but at present there is nothing substantive just smoke.”

    Smoke? Really? Not’s not smoke buddy, that’s shit-mist.

    And then this:

    “Media probes into a academic scandal that is now threatening to be a multi-decade affair with people calling for banners to come down and causes you chief rivals to engage in a level of jackassery so obnoxious logging off Twitter is starting to look like a good idea? Yeah I can do without that and I can do without a scandal that UNC doesn’t appear to have a grasp on or has any end in sight. Yes, this might come off as whining a bit on my part and for that I do apologize. I just want it over with and I have little doubt that desire is going to go largely unfulfilled into the foreseeable future.”

    Note….admits to whining. Don’t recall ever hearing that much less seeing it in writing. And of course, all us jackasses are becoming a bit obnoxious. US Obnoxious??? Really? Ha Ha Ha Ha …..can’t stop smiling!

  10. Virginia Wolf 08/17/2012 at 3:08 PM #

    Oh my, ole Roy is already talking about weapons. He is getting very nervous. He knows he is going to get caught! I’m loving it!!!!

  11. coach13 08/17/2012 at 3:11 PM #

    While the NCAA/BOG/Largest Sports Media in the Nation seem to have no interest in “The End Game”, what about the ACC and it’s members? I’d love to know what the thoughts are of other institutions on the overflowing toilet of UNC…

  12. ancsu87 08/17/2012 at 9:38 PM #

    They are running scared while tripping over their illusions of grander and holiness. Look at this article:

    The hope amongst the Carolina blue is that this thing is isolated and no matter what, it doesn’t involve the mens basketball program. My gut tells me the men who have led this program, the great Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge and Roy Williams would never take part in anything like this, that they are men of honor and the basketball program will remain clean forever. It is my personal belief that, that is true and whatever ends up coming out when everything is out in the open, it will remain true.

    I’VE WAITED 23 YEARS SINCE BEING A YOUNG ALUMNI, WHO HAD TO WATCH JIM VALVANO BEING LYNCHED BY HIS OWN UNIVERSITY (PAWNS LEAD BY THE UNC BOG CONTROLLED BY THE UNC / DEAN SMITH MACHINE), TO SHOVE SOME SHIT BACK UP UNC-Ch FANS AND ALUMNI. I CANT WAIT TO GO BACK HOME THIS WEEK TO WILMINGTON AND HAVE SOME DISCUSSIONS WITH NICE LITTLE UNC-CH DICKHEADS. NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS THEY HAVE BEEN EXPOSED.

  13. ancsu87 08/17/2012 at 9:38 PM #

    http://keepingitheel.com/2012/08/14/thoughts-on-the-unc-academic-scandal/

    “The hope amongst the Carolina blue is that this thing is isolated and no matter what, it doesn’t involve the mens basketball program. My gut tells me the men who have led this program, the great Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge and Roy Williams would never take part in anything like this, that they are men of honor and the basketball program will remain clean forever. It is my personal belief that, that is true and whatever ends up coming out when everything is out in the open, it will remain true.”

    IVE WAITED 23 YEARS FOR THIS DAY HAVING WATCHED THE UNC-CH/DEAN SMITH CONTROLLED MACHINE DESTROY A GOOD MAN. OUR OWN UNIVERSITY LEADERS ALLOWED THEMSELVES TO BE USED AS PAWNS IN THAT GAME. THE MOST AMAZING THING WAS HOW THE EXCUSE THAT OTHER PROGRAMS ARE DOING THE SAME THING (SHOES/TICKETS/ETC) THE HOLY ROLLERS OF UNC-CH SAID THAT WAS NOT AN EXCUSE. IT IS ALL THEY SEEM TO HAVE TO SAY NOW. NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS THEY HAVE BEEN EXPOSED FOR THE FRAUD THEY HAVE BEEN STARTING WITH DEAN ASSWIPE SMITH. GREAT MY ASS — IT IS WELL KNOWN HE HATED THE POPULARITY OF JIM VALVANO AND THUS WAS BORN GOLENBOCK’S BOOK.

  14. Wufpacker 08/18/2012 at 12:07 AM #

    ^ You’re either lacking some quotation marks, or some schizophrenia medication.

  15. ancsu87 08/18/2012 at 12:37 AM #

    It was lacking the quotation marks. Read the link. It is quite interesting the thought process of people who think they are untouchable and can do no wrong because it is the “CAROLINA WAY”.

  16. Wufpacker 08/18/2012 at 12:54 AM #

    Yeah, I was just being silly. But you’re right about the psyche (or is it psychosis?) of the typical blue.

  17. BureauOfMines 08/18/2012 at 2:55 AM #

    I’d like to think there’s a special place in hell for Golenbock and those who were in cahoots with him.

  18. groupthink 08/18/2012 at 7:39 AM #

    i saw this online. it made me wonder is this the same pope that has been mentioned on earlier posts. http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/8275928/north-carolina-tar-heels-attempting-move-academic-scandal

  19. fullmoon1 08/18/2012 at 11:09 AM #

    It is very telling of the tarholes as human beings when their concern is limiting the exposure of cheating to one sport, football. One would think cheating in any sport is bad.

  20. john of sparta 09/11/2012 at 8:36 PM #

    ok, here’s the End Game:
    1. Thorp resigns.
    2. ACC breaks up.
    3. NCAA dissolves.
    when? by 2016.

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