NCAA: No Punishment For UNC Tar Heels Academic Scandal

CHAPEL HILL, NC — The NCAA ruled on Friday that the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill athletics department will receive no punishment after a years-long investigation into the legitimacy of certain classes. The so-called "paper classes" were found not just to benefit student-athletes, but all students, the NCAA found.

Of five allegations against UNC, the NCAA found two violations, WRAL Sports reported. The chairman of the Department of African and Afro-American Studies, Julius Nyang'oro, and his assistant, Deborah Crowder, were the "only two individuals who knew the full extent of what occurred at UNC," the NCAA concluded.

Since 2010, Tar Heels sports has been peppered with scandals relating to the academic validity of student-athletes' curricula as well as potential violations of the NCAA's amateurship rule, which prohibits student-athletes from receiving financial benefits from their position on sports teams.

Michael McAdoo, one of four players dismissed from the team, was ineligible because he received "improper assistance" from a tutor across multiple academic terms according to the NCAA, WRAL reported. UNC investigations found that in the African and Afro-American Studies department, there had been classes that never met, changed grades and more.

The NCAA investigation found "impermissible benefits" and "unethical conduct" among other violations in the UNC athletic program and imposed a postseason ban, a $50,000 fine, the loss of 15 scholarships over 3 years and more.

More recently, the accusation that student-athletes were disproportionately benefiting from paper classes in the African and Afro-American Studies Department was found to be out of the reach of the NCAA.

"The issues concerning the courses are academic in natures and beyond the reach of the NCAA bylaws," UNC argued in response to the NCAA's allegations.

Greg Sankey, head of the NCAA Committee on Infractions, said "NCAA policy is clear... The NCAA defers to its member schools to determine whether academic fraud occurred and, ultimately, the panel is bound to making decisions within the rules set by the membership."

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