NCAA clears North Carolina of academic fraud charges.
The NCAA announced Friday that it “could not conclude that the University of North Carolina violated NCAA academic rules” in what is widely considered the worst academic scandal in college sports history, and did not levy any penalties against the university.
According to a university-commissioned investigation, North Carolina had for nearly two decades offered a “shadow curriculum” of fake classes into which athletes were steered. The university appeared guilty of subverting the NCAA’s central tenet that college athletics are a mere component of education.
North Carolina was charged with, among other things, a “lack of institutional control” resulting in violations of bylaws governing extra benefits to athletes and ethical conduct.
The scheme involved nearly 200 laxly administered and graded classes — frequently requiring no attendance and just one paper — over nearly two decades. The students were disproportionately athletes, especially in the lucrative, high-profile sports of football and men’s basketball. They were mostly administered by a staff member named Deborah Crowder. In many cases, athletes were steered to the classes by athletics academic advisers.
The scandal was so serious that the university’s accreditation body briefly placed the institution on probation.
In its latest notice of allegations, which is the NCAA equivalent of a lawsuit or indictment, the NCAA’s enforcement staff pointed to the high enrollment of athletes in the classes — nearly half, according to the university-commissioned investigation led by Kenneth L. Wainstein — and emails in which advisers requested spots for athletes.
North Carolina had contended that the case was fundamentally academic in nature, and that athletics staffers were at most tangential to it. They cited instances in which similar misconduct was alleged at Auburn and Michigan, and the NCAA did not act.
The NCAA’s investigation lasted more than three years.
The school had faced five serious charges and the possibility of major sanctions such as postseason bans or vacated wins and championships.
Ultimately, the NCAA said it found only two violations: a failure-to-cooperate charge against two people tied to the problem courses in the formerly named African and Afro-American Studies (AFAM) department.