ESPN arroves fashionably late…but still arroves

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Dana O’Neil at ESPN.com comments on what we here in NC have known for many, many years…the NCAA and UNC are baloney

The University of North Carolina has essentially admitted that dozens of courses taught by African-American studies professor Julius Nyang’oro were, to use non-academic parlance, baloney.

The school has not argued that athletes made up a high percentage of the students enrolled in those baloney courses.

Going a step further, a report engineered by a faculty committee concluded — though not yet fully endorsed by the university — that academic counselors assigned to specific teams perhaps pushed athletes to those baloney classes.

And the NCAA apparently has no jurisdiction in this matter.

Which is why, dear folks in Indianapolis, people just don’t get you sometimes.

So what about the NCAA? Are they going to get involved?

Except, as of right now, there is no indication that the NCAA will revisit or re-examine the penalties it has already inflicted on UNC and its football team for violations related to improper benefits and academic misconduct involving a tutor.

[snip]

The reason: The athletes did the baloney work in the baloney courses, and so long as the baloney courses weren’t balonified solely for the benefit of athletes — in other words, they were equal-opportunity baloney classes made available to everyone at North Carolina — it’s not an NCAA problem.

In NCAA parlance, they call it involving the athletic nexus.

In layman’s terms, it’s baloney.

Shocking I know.

This particular case is about North Carolina, but the greater issue isn’t. Essentially, the hook in this case is that there is no proof that a coach or athletic department official coerced Nyang’oro to make lunch meat out of his curriculum for the benefit of the athletes enrolled.

But this isn’t just about targeting easy classes or less challenging majors. There isn’t a college student alive who couldn’t tell you where to find the easier A’s on his or her campus (late 1980s/early 1990s in State College, Pa., you went with Astronomy 101 or Geology 101. We even called it “Rocks for Jocks”).

[snip]

Pushing athletes to particular majors or even classes — clustering, if you will — while perhaps distasteful, isn’t in and of itself fraudulent. Pushing athletes to classes that were deemed “aberrant” by an internal university probe due to grade changes and forgeries is an entirely different matter.

These weren’t easy courses. They weren’t courses at all. More like glorified babysitting hours.

Well if there’s one thing we know about UNC is it’s definitely Romper Room time over there.

Robbi Pickeral at ESPN.com also adds her two cents about the NCAA staying mum on the UNC scandal.

…in the wake of major NCAA sanctions levied against UNC’s football program, followed by a separate academic scandal involving the African and Afro-American Studies Department, a storm still lingers.

“We had some major violations, and I thought when we got the final report [from the NCAA] in March, that would be the end of it,” said Cunningham, who was hired last October. “But the internal dialogue about how we’re going to balance academics and athletics has lasted a lot longer publicly than I thought.”

And for good reason.

Robbi goes on to recap what has happened and then discuss the NCAA’s rule on academic fraud. She then cites some examples of “’clustering’ of a high number of athletes in the same course or major doesn’t on its face break NCAA rules.”

For example, the NCAA showed little interest when the Ann Arbor News reported in 2008 that 85 percent of 294 independent studies courses a Michigan psychology professor taught over a three-year period was comprised of athletes.

She then points out about UNC “moving forward”. HAHAHAHAHA…oh, that’s rich. Give me a minute to catch my breath after that one.

Jay Smith, a history professor at UNC who has been outspoken about his concern for academic integrity at the university, said in an email there’s no way the NCAA wants to look too closely at a situation like the one in Chapel Hill because “it exemplifies too vividly the hypocrisy on which big-time college sports is based.”

What Smith would like UNC to investigate, now, is how far back athletics counselors may have been steering athletes to questionable classes, and whether other departments might also be implicated.

“The University, I think, would like to pretend that all problems were introduced in the Butch Davis era,” said Smith in an email. “If there’s evidence that some of these strange courses were being scheduled and taken by athletes 10 or 15 years ago — and there have been some tantalizing hints in that direction –that would suggest a much more pervasive and ingrained culture of permissiveness and corner cutting, one that will take a great deal of work to uproot.”

What about basketball??

Meanwhile, basketball coach Roy Williams can’t shake media questions about his teams’ involvement in the questionable AFAM courses. Although the majority of the athletes in the suspect sessions were football players, 3 percent were men’s basketball players. Predating the four years covered in the internal investigation, seven of the players on UNC’s 2005 national title team graduated with a degree in AFAM, the Indianapolis Star reported in 2010. (That includes forward Sean May, who told the newspaper in that same article that after double-majoring in communications and AFAM, he dropped the communications part of his degree after going pro early because it would be easier to graduate sooner.)

The number of AFAM majors on Williams’ teams has decreased significantly since his first title. But the suspicions, especially among rival fans, still cling.

“I’m telling you, it is not an issue for basketball. It is a university issue; it is an academic issue,” Williams told ESPN.com recently when asked about the scandal again. “Nobody has come to me and said, ‘We have problems with basketball.’ In my opinion, we don’t, and I’m not going to use my time trying to find something that’s probably not there.”

Asked whether the NCAA took a specific look at the basketball program in regards to the questionable AFAM classes, Cunningham said he couldn’t speak to what the investigators were specifically studying.

“But my impression with the NCAA has always been [that] they are not sport-specific when it comes to a class,” Cunningham said. “It’s whether or not the issues were something that just involved student-athletes, or student-athletes and other students, and [whether the classes] were generally available to other students. The NCAA doesn’t look sport-specific on issues like that.”

Williams, for one, would like to look forward, not back. He said he’s been “disturbed” and “discouraged” by what has occurred, “but at some point it’s got to come to an end, and people have got to let us go on. … Mistakes have been made, [but] we’re making great steps to improve everything.”

Nothing to see here. Move along. Move along.

About 1.21 Jigawatts

Class of '98, Mechanical Engineer, State fan since arriving on campus and it's been a painful ride ever since. I live by the Law of NC State Fandom, "For every Elation there is an equal and opposite Frustration."

Media UNC Scandal

27 Responses to ESPN arroves fashionably late…but still arroves

  1. ppack3 08/08/2012 at 2:41 PM #

    “…in other words, they were equal-opportunity baloney classes made available to everyone at North Carolina.”

    Oh, but they weren’t available to everyone at Carolina. They were created after the drop/add period and promptly filled up with 18 football players! At least, that’s was how one of the classes went. We aren’t sure about NINE of the others because nobody knows who taught them.

    It’s really unbelievable how many articles are written, and still all of the horrible facts cannot possibly by squeezed in.

  2. wolfonthehill 08/08/2012 at 3:00 PM #

    So it really sounds like the NCAA’s gonna let this go – which means nothing whatsoever will happen. That, my friends, is criminal.

    The only impact is that, going forward, athletes at unc-ch will no longer have this option for remaining eligible and (laughably) graduating. That on its own will take some number of potentially top athletes off the playing field… and/or drop their graduation rates.

  3. PackFamily 08/08/2012 at 3:07 PM #

    “In my opinion, we don’t, and I’m not going to use my time trying to find something that’s probably not there.”

    Mak it down. These words will ocme back to haunt Ol’ Roy… especailly the last part.

  4. primacyone 08/08/2012 at 3:50 PM #

    “….The reason: The athletes did the baloney work in the baloney courses, and so long as the baloney courses weren’t balonified solely for the benefit of athletes — in other words, they were equal-opportunity baloney classes made available to everyone at North Carolina — it’s not an NCAA problem…..”

    I now know why the folks over at UN* created the Dickie Badour Leadership Institute. He was the Master Cheater.

  5. OG - RedTerrors 08/08/2012 at 4:07 PM #

    “The only impact is that, going forward, athletes at unc-ch will no longer have this option for remaining eligible”

    I have to disagree with this…if they are skating by with these FACTS sitting right in their front yard for all to see, going forward they will merely decorate it and thumb their nose at any passers-by who don’t like it.

  6. TLeo 08/08/2012 at 4:40 PM #

    If anyone thinks they are going to change their cheating ways…I have some beach front property in North Dakota for sale. The ncaa has been bought and paid for and will ignore this fraud and the holes will do just as they always have done.

  7. state73 08/08/2012 at 4:43 PM #

    The cheaters at chapel hell believe they are above the law and it looks like that is true. Go to hell tarholes.

  8. Lunatic Fringe 08/08/2012 at 5:11 PM #

    NCAA giving a colonoscopy to Upper Room HS for doing nothing more than starting a new school, but letting UNC slide on known issues. NCAAs lines get blurrier and more illogical every year, but seems clear that it’s motive is keep fat cats happy while pretending to keep order.

    The best snippet I think from that article is below:
    The NCAA has no problem telling high schools — where it has zero jurisdiction — what qualifies as a core course and what doesn’t. It has no problem telling high school athletes whether their coursework is legitimate enough to pass the NCAA eligibility smell test or is subject to review.

    Yet when it comes to the legitimacy of classwork done on a college campus, where technically the NC(as in collegiate)AA has some sway, it lets the individual institutions police themselves.

  9. Wolfsrudel 08/08/2012 at 5:16 PM #

    So, if the NCAA has no jurisdiction over the academic fraud in Chapel Hell because all students allegedly had access to the AFAM classes, then how in the world do they have jurisdiction over the Penn State sex scandal that involved no athletes or students at all? The Penn State situation was and is a criminal justice issue and not an athletics issue. Furthermore, if the University of No Class didn’t break the rules, then they had to have broken the spirit of the rules at the very least! Wasn’t that the conclusion drawn in respect to N.C. State in 1991? Why do they pick and choose who they hold accountable? HYPOCRISY!

  10. Wolfsrudel 08/08/2012 at 5:18 PM #

    Maybe NCAA really stands for the North Carolina Athletic Association.

  11. bigdudenc 08/08/2012 at 5:23 PM #

    I know it’s coincidence, but I launched this email to every espn address I could find this morning.

    There has been a major story brewing at UNC Chapel Hill this spring/summer regarding the African American Studies Department and the alleged diploma factory for athletes it became (may have been intended for since its creation). The local news outlets have had their low level investigative reports produce damning, fruitful pieces every time they look into it.  WRAL just added another piece today.  This story has it all: fraudulent wages to state employees, authority figures turning a blind eye, Basketball National Championship implications, academics taking a back seat to big time college ball, arrogance, hypocrisy, scapegoating (the primary defense of the UNC athletic department) and general corruption of a public (tax funded) institution.  A panel of UNC faculty compiled a report and gave the recommendation that the situation warrants an independent investigation. However, the BOGs have not done the right thing and assigned an independent investigator to look into the matter.  Someone should write a book.  It could make someone’s career.  Why is there so little coverage of this on ESPN?  Is it overshadowed by PSU, or are the sports journalist at ESPN too scared of there new CEO and his ‘Carolina Way’?
     
     I will always be a squeaky wheel from now on. Now when is the next HOA meeting?

  12. Pack78 08/08/2012 at 5:30 PM #

    Wolf-PP poster says that NCAA stands for ‘NO CLUE AT ALL’…

  13. PackerInRussia 08/08/2012 at 5:33 PM #

    I believe this has been a great learning experience for UNC. They now know where their weaknesses were and they’ll be sure that those aren’t exposed again.

  14. old13 08/08/2012 at 5:58 PM #

    If the baloney classes aren’t a NCAA issue, maybe they are for the accreditation agencies. “Public Ivy” is now “Poison Ivy,” the actual “Carolina Way!”

  15. IrishPackFan 08/08/2012 at 6:29 PM #

    I haven’t said much on this, but THIS kind of impotent response by the NCAA is why I think the PSU punishment is nothing but PR work by their “fearless leader”. He has admitted that the Freeh report is better than anything the NCAA would or could come up with so it is taken at face value, but the UN* academic review that paints a picture of system-wide athletic abuse of secondary institution credibility is swept under the rug because it can’t be proven it was merely an athletic issue?! WTF? Seriously? Was the PSU punishment a side show to mask the ineptitude of the NCAA to monitor its members? Me thinks so. And what about the thought floated out there (by HD our ACC Blogger at ESPN no less) that a deal could have been made with UN* to accept the punishment “as is” despite the NCAA knowing about fake classes. The NCAA is the perverbial parent with their ” do as I say, not as I do” mantra with regards to punishment being levied. F’in Jacknuts.

  16. vtpackfan 08/08/2012 at 7:14 PM #

    Dr. Smith says “there are some tantalizing hints”, Roy Williams says its a waste of time talking about it, and the University can’t/won’t endorse anything. This a recipe for cannibalism-look away if you have a queezy stomach.

  17. ncsslim 08/08/2012 at 7:24 PM #

    The admin at UNC is not so stupid as to not allow a few selected non-athletes participate in these classes, with the intent being this silly disclaimer of “open to all”. I could see it a mile off when the “data” was released. I’m just surprised at how unsophisticated the process needs to be to supposedly “fool” the “unrelenting” enforcement arm of the NCAA, which is shown to be the total “have vs have-not” fraud that was supected.

    In the words of the great Gomer Pyle, “surprise, surprise.”

  18. MrPlywood 08/08/2012 at 7:40 PM #

    Peter Golenbock hasn’t released a book for about 3 years, maybe he needs something to do.

  19. MISTA WOLF 08/08/2012 at 8:34 PM #

    Tell me if I’m wrong because I’m all for it, but Carolina will have no penalty handed down from the fuktards in Indy because Carolina is a money making machine on a global level. The NCAA makes so much money off of Carolina that their is no way they allow their cash cow to be exposed. Let’s face it.

  20. gso packbacker 08/08/2012 at 9:01 PM #

    Lunatic and Wolsrudel hit upon it.

    So if this situation happens in a high school, the NCAA doesn’t clear the athlete to play, however, if it happens in a college, they have no jurisdiction and it’s all good.

    How can anyone reconcile this line of thinking? Their logic is dizzying and conflicts with the line of crap they spew on their own website about their “purpose”.

  21. highstick 08/08/2012 at 9:19 PM #

    Bologna is good…this is rotten rancid potted meat!

  22. LRM 08/09/2012 at 6:30 AM #

    The main problem here is that the NCAA is reactionary, and until recently, this has been a non-story outside of NC. Hell, most Carolina fans I know still aren’t paying attention. And why should they?

  23. wilmwolf80 08/09/2012 at 10:11 AM #

    Maybe I’m just ignorant of how things work, but isn’t academic eligibility an NCAA issue? If “student” athletes were getting grades for work that was not done, then shouldn’t the university retroactively rule them ineligible? And if the FBall and Bball teams played ineligible players, shouldn’t that fall under the NCAA’s jurisdiction? It seems like these are two fairly obvious dots that are not being connected in the media. How the university conducts classes is their own business (though I think they should lose their accreditation for this mess), but when those classes directly affect eligibility, it would seem to me to put them squarely back on the NCAA’s radar.

  24. Prowling Woofie 08/09/2012 at 11:48 AM #

    Whoa there, wilmwolf80 – too much logic clouds the brain…

    😉

  25. triadwolf 08/09/2012 at 1:26 PM #

    Great point wilmwolf80! I’ve been on the eligibility train for a while now. A proper independent investigation would rule that these were not classes at all and rescind any credit given to the students.

    This has a two-fold impact: First, it could affect the eligibility of particular athletes during particular semesters/seasons. But it may not if the student was carrying a full load minus the class(es) in question and maintaining the minimum GPA. In that case I don’t think it would change anything.

    Second, if the classes are deemed bogus and no credit is given, then many of the student athletes involved probably will not have the credits necessary for graduation (can you take back a degree that has already been awarded???). This could directly affect the APR going back several years and result in a similar situation as UCONN.

    But there will be no valid independent investigation and there will be no direct negative impact to UNC or their athletics department.

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