The Carolina Way (Cont'd)

[Gonzo]

Here is the N&O piece including PDFs of the allegations:

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/coll ... 36122.html

[appst89]

They got away with it. Anybody surprised?

[moehler]

well, it looks like it will go as expected, the women's basketball team will be the sacrificial lamb, and the rest of the athletic dept will, at worst, get a wrist slap. I'm sure Williams will point this out to recruits, that his program is protected, and they don't have much worry about going forward. Whats also amazing about this, is how much longer this will drag out, I mean, dam, their looking at late 2017 maybe 2018 before they finally get this settled.

[WVAPPeer]

surely looks that way - very disappointing in the sense that the NCAA will punish someone for "accepting an unsanctioned free meal" and let this pass --- they are laying it entirely on women's basketball ---

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/coll ... 29487.html

[Gonzo]

UNC got away with it. (It being the biggest academic fraud scandal ever exposed in the United States) The subsequent coverup, the strategic manipulation of the tribunal, spending millions on lawyers and PR firms (the cost of which will be backfilled with TAX PAYER MONEY) were masterfully employed to achieve this goal.

It was expensive. It was precise. It was dishonest. It was the Carolina Way.

[moehler]

what makes me even angrier about this situation, is, I predict its not the tax payers who will fit the bill, but the other schools in the NC system. Its entirely possible that the administration at UNC will contact, behind close doors, of course, the NC administrators whom are in charge of funding the schools in the NC system, and have them syphon money originally earmarked for schools such as App, into Carolina's pocket. I think its a good chance App, along with other schools, will be the ones paying for Carolina's sins, just makes we sick thinking that could happen.

[Gonzo]

UNC is officially the OJ Simpson of the NCAA.

[JTApps1]

If they do get away with it then what is stopping everyone else from doing the same? If the NCAA is all about "student athletes" how can they not punish UNC and say its an academic issue? They can't have it both ways. If I had a program that had any sort of NCAA sanctions related to academics I'd demand them to be lifted and any wins vacated should be resotred. Ridiculous.

[WVAPPeer]

One editorial that pretty much sums it up -
The NCAA has sent its Amended Notification of Allegations to UNC and UNC released it Tuesday.


Bottom line? Women's basketball is going to take the fall. Our guess is you can just about kiss Sylvia Hatchell goodbye. She's going to be the patsy in this mess.

Men's basketball and football are written out of the report altogether.

We can only assume it's because the NCAA can't prove what they probably suspect, largely because former professor Julius Nyang'oro and his assistant Deborah Crowder refused to help the NCAA (more on that in a minute).

The focus of the slimmed-down report is Jan Boxill, noted UNC professor of ethics, who is mentioned in 15 separate cases of academic fraud. She says her e-mails were taken out of context. You'd think an academic might write more precisely than that.

So to sum it up: despite criminal charges being filed, despite several investigations including the Martin and Wainstein reports, despite being put on probation by the accreditation agency the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, despite Julius Peppers' damning transcript being made public, despite the lawsuit which revealed Michael McAdoo's plagiarism and began the exposure of wholesale systematic fraud, despite the other lawsuits by student-athletes, despite the unquestionable enrollment of dozens of football and men's basketball players in these fake classes, despite unauthorized grade changes, despite hiring an assistant men's basketball coach in Sean May without making clear that his degree was in fact earned (May talked extensively about taking independent study classes while at UNC which he said freed up his time considerably), which took place in the middle of the scandal in a giant middle finger to everyone, despite the NCAA investigation, football and men's basketball have a reasonable shot at getting away with a nearly 20-year effort to push players through school by means of fake classes taught in some cases without even the beard of a "professor" like Nyang'oro.

Look, we expect the NCAA took this investigation seriously and the idea that UNC got off light because it involves UNC has some flaws.

First, Ohio State, Penn State and Southern Cal are bigger money makers than UNC. They weren't protected. Neither was Syracuse or Louisville, both also featuring powerful athletic programs.

No, it's not that. It's because Nyang'oro and Crowder refused to cooperate. Crowder had a real soft spot for the basketball program. She had (or has) a long-term personal relationship with former basketball player Warren Martin and listed several basketball (and football) players as friends on her Facebook page.

We expect that without Nyang'oro and Crowder, the NCAA simply couldn't get enough evidence to proceed and had to leave out specific charges against football and men's basketball.

You'll recall that Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall dropped charges against Nyang'oro because he cooperated with the SBI, the DA's office and Kenneth Wainstein at Woodall's insistence.

It's too bad in retrospect that he didn't insist he cooperate with the NCAA as well.

After the charges were dropped, Nyang'oro's attorneys said he would continue to help UNC's investigation.

That clearly hasn't happened.

So football and most importantly basketball may get away with it, or at least with no major sanctions.

On the other hand, while the NCAA may not be able to tie anyone in basketball or football directly to the academic fraud, the fraud still exists. The transcripts still show the athletes who were enrolled in those "classes." It's entirely possible, and would be appropriate, if the NCAA voided every single event UNC won with an ineligible player, up to and including the Final Fours in 2005 and 2009.

It would also be appropriate to issue severe fines.

And the university still faces five very serious charges.

Still, depending on where this goes from here, it may not be entirely over even after the penalty phase.

UNC, which has moved heaven and earth to avoid facing up to this, has succeeded largely because the NCAA has no power of subpoena.

The DA does of course but he removed himself from the discussion.

However, the North Carolina legislature does have subpoena power as does the U.S. Congress.

We won't hold our breath waiting for the legislature to show courage. It's been a corrupt body for a long time and that's regardless of which party is in power.

Still, if the public were outraged enough, the legislature could intervene either with hearings or by invoking the power of the purse.

None of that is likely to happen of course, and Attorney General Roy Cooper, who won a lot of respect for how he handled the end of the lacrosse case, isn't likely to start an investigation in an election year (he's running for governor and in a very tight race for those of you who don't live around here).

And there's no point in expecting honor out of UNC at this late date. It certainly won't seek to emulate Michigan.

Why Michigan?

Because after the Chris Webber scandal broke, a scandal that was basically about money rather than academic fraud, Michigan did everything it possibly could to set things straight, including removing the ill-gotten Final Four banners the Wolverines hung during his two years in Ann Arbor.

Or NC State for that matter, which made real and substantial efforts to fix problems that took place in the Valvano era.

UNC by contrast has behaved disgracefully. It has fought disclosure at every turn. It has treated the media with contempt, going so far as to convert searchable text files into non-searchable PDF files. It has spent millions on attorneys and PR flacks and presumably some of that money came from the taxpayers. And now as UNC students apply to graduate schools, they're finding out that their accomplishments are tainted by the scandal. It's not fair to them, but who could blame an admissions department for a competitive program if it looked askance at a UNC application in 2016?

It's a series of betrayals really, but other than the athletes who were used and then discarded, in some ways the worst betrayal is how UNC has abandoned the courageous legacy of William C. Friday.

Friday headed up the UNC system for decades and did incredible things for this state. And when UNC had a serious problem with basketball, culminating with gamblers getting to players at UNC and NC State, Friday didn't hesitate to do what he thought was right. He forced Frank McGuire out, hired Dean Smith and severely limited the basketball program for several years. He canceled the Dixie Classic, which was a hugely unpopular thing to do.

Didn't matter. He did what he thought was right and did so because he didn't want sports to run the university.

His courage led to what was once called "the Carolina Way," the idea that you could compete at a high level and be an honorable public university. You might as well call it the Friday Way.

Sadly, he lived long enough to witness the start of this epic scandal and understood all too well what was unfolding, telling the Washington Post shortly before he died in 2012 that "the University of North Carolina has suffered a humiliation unlike anything it ever had before...We're in a very dangerous situation, I think. We have really reached a point where there is no control, in some spots."

UNC's reaction to the ANOA underscores this, with A.D. Bubba Cunningham, rather than promising to set things right, or promising to restore UNC's honor as Friday did, instead promised to fight to see that UNC was "treated fairly."

For two decades, possibly longer, this university brought in athletes who had little chance of succeeding academically and rather than helping them to catch up, created false classes so the university could take advantage of their physical talents before casting them aside. They certainly didn't care about treating them fairly.

It's a pity we've abandoned shame in the West because some shame would be useful about now in Chapel Hill.

[NattyBumppo'sRevenge]

Yes, there is no shame. They are actually proud, similar to that of a barbarian or a pirate following the wake of their wrong doing.

[Gonzo]

Do you have a link to that, WV?

[scatman77]

One editorial that pretty much sums it up -
The NCAA has sent its Amended Notification of Allegations to UNC and UNC released it Tuesday.


Bottom line? Women's basketball is going to take the fall. Our guess is you can just about kiss Sylvia Hatchell goodbye. She's going to be the patsy in this mess.

Men's basketball and football are written out of the report altogether.

We can only assume it's because the NCAA can't prove what they probably suspect, largely because former professor Julius Nyang'oro and his assistant Deborah Crowder refused to help the NCAA (more on that in a minute).

The focus of the slimmed-down report is Jan Boxill, noted UNC professor of ethics, who is mentioned in 15 separate cases of academic fraud. She says her e-mails were taken out of context. You'd think an academic might write more precisely than that.

So to sum it up: despite criminal charges being filed, despite several investigations including the Martin and Wainstein reports, despite being put on probation by the accreditation agency the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, despite Julius Peppers' damning transcript being made public, despite the lawsuit which revealed Michael McAdoo's plagiarism and began the exposure of wholesale systematic fraud, despite the other lawsuits by student-athletes, despite the unquestionable enrollment of dozens of football and men's basketball players in these fake classes, despite unauthorized grade changes, despite hiring an assistant men's basketball coach in Sean May without making clear that his degree was in fact earned (May talked extensively about taking independent study classes while at UNC which he said freed up his time considerably), which took place in the middle of the scandal in a giant middle finger to everyone, despite the NCAA investigation, football and men's basketball have a reasonable shot at getting away with a nearly 20-year effort to push players through school by means of fake classes taught in some cases without even the beard of a "professor" like Nyang'oro.

Look, we expect the NCAA took this investigation seriously and the idea that UNC got off light because it involves UNC has some flaws.

First, Ohio State, Penn State and Southern Cal are bigger money makers than UNC. They weren't protected. Neither was Syracuse or Louisville, both also featuring powerful athletic programs.

No, it's not that. It's because Nyang'oro and Crowder refused to cooperate. Crowder had a real soft spot for the basketball program. She had (or has) a long-term personal relationship with former basketball player Warren Martin and listed several basketball (and football) players as friends on her Facebook page.

We expect that without Nyang'oro and Crowder, the NCAA simply couldn't get enough evidence to proceed and had to leave out specific charges against football and men's basketball.

You'll recall that Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall dropped charges against Nyang'oro because he cooperated with the SBI, the DA's office and Kenneth Wainstein at Woodall's insistence.

It's too bad in retrospect that he didn't insist he cooperate with the NCAA as well.

After the charges were dropped, Nyang'oro's attorneys said he would continue to help UNC's investigation.

That clearly hasn't happened.

So football and most importantly basketball may get away with it, or at least with no major sanctions.

On the other hand, while the NCAA may not be able to tie anyone in basketball or football directly to the academic fraud, the fraud still exists. The transcripts still show the athletes who were enrolled in those "classes." It's entirely possible, and would be appropriate, if the NCAA voided every single event UNC won with an ineligible player, up to and including the Final Fours in 2005 and 2009.

It would also be appropriate to issue severe fines.

And the university still faces five very serious charges.

Still, depending on where this goes from here, it may not be entirely over even after the penalty phase.

UNC, which has moved heaven and earth to avoid facing up to this, has succeeded largely because the NCAA has no power of subpoena.

The DA does of course but he removed himself from the discussion.

However, the North Carolina legislature does have subpoena power as does the U.S. Congress.

We won't hold our breath waiting for the legislature to show courage. It's been a corrupt body for a long time and that's regardless of which party is in power.

Still, if the public were outraged enough, the legislature could intervene either with hearings or by invoking the power of the purse.

None of that is likely to happen of course, and Attorney General Roy Cooper, who won a lot of respect for how he handled the end of the lacrosse case, isn't likely to start an investigation in an election year (he's running for governor and in a very tight race for those of you who don't live around here).

And there's no point in expecting honor out of UNC at this late date. It certainly won't seek to emulate Michigan.

Why Michigan?

Because after the Chris Webber scandal broke, a scandal that was basically about money rather than academic fraud, Michigan did everything it possibly could to set things straight, including removing the ill-gotten Final Four banners the Wolverines hung during his two years in Ann Arbor.

Or NC State for that matter, which made real and substantial efforts to fix problems that took place in the Valvano era.

UNC by contrast has behaved disgracefully. It has fought disclosure at every turn. It has treated the media with contempt, going so far as to convert searchable text files into non-searchable PDF files. It has spent millions on attorneys and PR flacks and presumably some of that money came from the taxpayers. And now as UNC students apply to graduate schools, they're finding out that their accomplishments are tainted by the scandal. It's not fair to them, but who could blame an admissions department for a competitive program if it looked askance at a UNC application in 2016?

It's a series of betrayals really, but other than the athletes who were used and then discarded, in some ways the worst betrayal is how UNC has abandoned the courageous legacy of William C. Friday.

Friday headed up the UNC system for decades and did incredible things for this state. And when UNC had a serious problem with basketball, culminating with gamblers getting to players at UNC and NC State, Friday didn't hesitate to do what he thought was right. He forced Frank McGuire out, hired Dean Smith and severely limited the basketball program for several years. He canceled the Dixie Classic, which was a hugely unpopular thing to do.

Didn't matter. He did what he thought was right and did so because he didn't want sports to run the university.

His courage led to what was once called "the Carolina Way," the idea that you could compete at a high level and be an honorable public university. You might as well call it the Friday Way.

Sadly, he lived long enough to witness the start of this epic scandal and understood all too well what was unfolding, telling the Washington Post shortly before he died in 2012 that "the University of North Carolina has suffered a humiliation unlike anything it ever had before...We're in a very dangerous situation, I think. We have really reached a point where there is no control, in some spots."

UNC's reaction to the ANOA underscores this, with A.D. Bubba Cunningham, rather than promising to set things right, or promising to restore UNC's honor as Friday did, instead promised to fight to see that UNC was "treated fairly."

For two decades, possibly longer, this university brought in athletes who had little chance of succeeding academically and rather than helping them to catch up, created false classes so the university could take advantage of their physical talents before casting them aside. They certainly didn't care about treating them fairly.

It's a pity we've abandoned shame in the West because some shame would be useful about now in Chapel Hill.

Spot. On.

[NattyBumppo'sRevenge]

My brother's friend's cousin's ex-girlfriend's dad knows someone in the Ram's Club.

Allegedly, it is already agreed between the NCAA and UNC that UNC is going to self impose a 1 year ban in football and basketball, pay a large fine, have no recruiting sanctions and let the NCAA punish any other sport how they see fit. Until there is a better source saying differently, this is probably what it is.

In regards to the NOA, men's basketball and football was referenced specifically in allegation #5 in the original NOA and was left out of the amended NOA. However, the ANOA basically is stating that UNC failed to monitor its academic support group for athletes. Which athletes? I believe that information will be detailed in the FI supplemental docs that have yet to be released by UNC as they are likely redacting those docs as we speak. It is hard to fathom that only women's basketball will be associated with the academic fraud when there is evidence out there that men's basketball, football, baseball, and women's soccer.

UNC has stated that they plan to take the full 90 days to respond and then we have to wait for the NCAA COI to rule, which could be another 3-6 months, so we probably won't know anything for sure until then.

[WVAPPeer]

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... -in-danger

One particular stain in the North Carolina scandal won't go away.

No matter how many passes the NCAA takes on what still has to be labeled the largest academic fraud scandal in major-college history; no matter how many coaches and championships are walled off in denial of a history of paper classes that went back 18 years, North Carolina's reputation as a highly-regarded top-level research school -- not just the athletic department -- is being questioned by a higher power.

Belle Wheelan can tell you. The president of the regional accrediting agency charged with approving North Carolina's academic credentials remains troubled.

In her 11 years as head of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission, she has never seen anything like it -- a school this prominent being put on probation by her organization.

"It was devastating, it really was," Wheelan said. "Everybody keeps saying this is an athletic issue. This is much more than an athletic issue."

True, this is an entire University of North Carolina issue. Boiled down, it's an issue of whether the entire system is about handing out degrees or actually educating its students.

Last June, Wheelan's organization put North Carolina on probation for alleged "non-compliance with the principle of … academic integrity." Of course it stemmed from the ongoing NCAA investigation that seeks to determine whether there was systemic academic fraud for almost two decades in the Tar Heels' athletic department.

The school has instituted a series of sweeping reforms. A UNC update to Wheelan's organization appears here.

While the NCAA hasn't come close to putting the words "academic" and "fraud" in the same sentence, for the commission, there was no tip-toeing around the issue. The school could lose federal funding because that's what accrediting agencies do.

They're watchdogs, making sure schools aren't defrauding the public and students in accepting those federal funds. Basically, accreditation tells the public if their degree from State U. is worth a damn.

"Employers want to know, 'What good is this degree if parts of it are in question?' said Wheelan, Virginia's former education secretary. "It creates havoc, no doubt about it."

There is no argument in this discussion about whether Roy Williams knew or should have known. There shouldn't be. The institution's higher-education rep is much more important.

The NCAA can take away scholarships, wins and championships. On a completely different level, North Carolina is looking at having its soul ripped out.

The school's current probation is considered the "most serious sanction" short of being kicked out by the commission.

The SACSCOC and Higher Learning Commission are the two largest regional accrediting agencies in the country. The two entities oversee a combined 30 states and tens of thousands of schools.

Wheelan said her knowledge goes back 11 years. For the Higher Learning Commission, there is no such case similar to North Carolina's in the last 40 years. That's as far as the commission's records reach according to a spokesman.

In that sense, the country's first public university is now, and forever, an outlier. It's not necessarily guilty, but not the same as it was. This historic probation has seen to it.

"Students simply would not attend the university if it were not accredited," said Gerald Gurney, an Oklahoma assistant professor long involved in college athletics reform. "To be placed on probation is a very serious matter."

In fact, eight months before UNC was put on probation SACSCOC questioned the school's commitment to investigating "degree integrity." In this letter on North Carolina's website, a commission vice president says UNC appeared to narrow the scope of the scandal to "the unethical actions by two people."

Presumably, one of those persons is former administrator Debbie Crowder. The letter goes on to conclude there was a "failure" by UNC to "examine the full impact of these 'academic irregularities.'"

There is an expectation in some spaces the probation will be lifted when the SACSCOC board meets in June. But the commission also has the option in two months to extend the probation a year or even revoke North Carolina's accreditation.

"If we get a second year we'll be in the Perils of Pauline," said Jay Smith, a North Carolina history professor who has been at the school since 1990. "We'll be playing chicken with our accrediting body. Who knows how it's going to go?"

North Carolina must prove it provides "a coherent course of study," according to SACSCOC. It must show the organization it has "appropriate administrative control over … athletics."

These are sobering issues for a school that views itself as so much better.

"We have seen enrollments decline," Wheelan said. "Parents are saying, 'If you can't be accredited, I don't want to send my child. I don't want to invest my money there.

"It can have a devastating effect, certainly on the reputation of the institution."

To be clear, there is no evidence of an enrollment decline at North Carolina. But Smith says from his view the UNC faculty has been "remarkably apathetic" in the face of the scandal. He added most of the outrage has come from retired professors.

Some of that may have to do with tenure. Smith -- a tenured professor himself -- has written a book with former UNC instructor Mary Willingham -- "Cheated" -- examining the scandal.

"You certainly would not expect a respected Research I institution to be on academic probation for academic fraud," Smith said.

For now, no one knows what to expect.

"They've done all they can at the particular point," Wheelan said. "Now it's just waiting to see if our board feels what they've done is sufficient."

[appbio91]

The valedictorian from my daughter's HS class went to Chapel Hell and is graduating this May. She is a smart hard working kid. Applied to multiple grad schools (I think Occ. Therapy) and was accepted no where. I wonder if this reputation thing could have hurt her. On side note App got my daughter accepted at every Vet school she applied to including Cornell. This is the second year in a row Cornell has selected an App student for their Vet school. Reputation matters....

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

[moehler]

wow, congratulations on your daughter being accepted to every Vet school she applied to. I had a buddy of mine at App who applied for Vet collages, he eventually got into Georgia's program, and told me Georgia only took 2 out of state applicants each year, out of hundreds of applicants, he told me that anything less than a 3.9 would not even get you a serious look. He described it as easier getting into medical school than Vet school. Again congrats for your daughter, your family must be really proud.

[appbio91]

wow, congratulations on your daughter being accepted to every Vet school she applied to. I had a buddy of mine at App who applied for Vet collages, he eventually got into Georgia's program, and told me Georgia only took 2 out of state applicants each year, out of hundreds of applicants, he told me that anything less than a 3.9 would not even get you a serious look. He described it as easier getting into medical school than Vet school. Again congrats for your daughter, your family must be really proud.

Thanks, we are very proud. This reflects really well on App too. You are right vet schools only accept a small fraction of out of state students so the fact the your friend and my d could get accepted to out of state programs coming out of App says something. I remember when we went to orientation 4 years ago they told us App has a great reputation for turning out quality grads and a very good record of getting kids into post undergrad programs. Like you said it takes hard work, practically a 4.0 gpa but the overall resume is important also. App does a great job rounding out the overall student. I am just so impressed with what they have done. My daughter is defending an undergraduate thesis as I type this. I think this is a direct result of having actual professors teaching classes with small class size instead of phd candidate slaves as you would have at a unc for example. I spread my bragging out to include App and it is sincere. I am proud of my Alma Mater!

Side note finally got around to renewing Yosef and season tickets a few minutes ago. Got cheaper because my younger daughter is an incoming freshman.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

[WVAPPeer]

This is a very good article on one of the 3 women who have been made the scapegoats at UNC ---
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/ ... 62827.html

[NattyBumppo'sRevenge]

This is a very good article on one of the 3 women who have been made the scapegoats at UNC ---
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/ ... 62827.html

Sounds like she is not happy with her original payoff.

[huskie3]

Boxill was terminated, there was no payoff. She is trying to clear her name so she can be employed again.