UNC’s failure to forfeit the games involving players who maintained eligibility by taking fake classes is further evidence that Big Time revenue sports harm universities. The university’s motto, lux et libertas (“light and liberty”), is a powerful metaphor for the core value of honesty or integrity. Without honesty, the entire knowledge-producing architecture of universities collapses in a heap. Without honesty, the “unwavering commitment to excellence” expressed in UNC’s mission statement is meaningless. Taking the initiative to forfeit these tainted games would be an acknowledgment of the wrong-doing, and more importantly a strong statement from UNC leaders that the University’s educational mission supersedes wins and losses in sports.

Let’s be clear about the extent of the dishonesty uncovered in the Wainstein report. Football players were credited with nearly 1000 fake classes and men’s basketball players over 200 fake classes. The report estimated that the grades awarded for these fraudulent classes had a significant impact on eligibility. For example, the fake classes enabled football players and men’s basketball players to reach or maintain the necessary 2.0 grade point average in 25% and 14%, respectively, of the impacted semesters. These figures mean that for any given season teams were likely to have fielded players who were portrayed as academically eligible, but were in fact not.

If the rules of college sports require athletes to be academically eligible, isn’t it cheating to permit non-eligible students to play? Unlike so many other aspects of life, in sports, the rules are explicit and the outcomes are clear — there are victories and there are defeats. UNC violated explicit rules on eligibility. Indeed, the fundamental characteristic of college sports is that they are played by students. If these games were played by ineligible athletes, then any wins must become losses, no different than if the teams had not shown up to play.

Two aspects of UNC’s failure to act are symptoms of the harm caused by Big Time sports. First, let’s remember that we are talking merely about games — hard fought games involving players who spent many hours of practice dedicated to developing their skills, to be sure. But games nonetheless. If UNC takes the courageous path of honesty by forfeiting these games, nobody will die, nobody will sustain lifelong injury or harm, the world will not end. UNC is harmed, however, by failing to act with integrity.

Second, dishonesty is not tolerated by UNC’s core mission of research, scholarship, and creativity, so why should it be accepted in sports? The contests fought on the playing fields of scholarship and research are single-minded in their commitment to finding the truth. The very process of research – hypothesis testing, peer review, and publication – invite close scrutiny. Scholarship that is identified as fraudulent is openly refuted and often withdrawn, its researchers publicly shamed. Situated within the university as they are, Big Time sports should adhere to the same evaluative criteria as every other aspect of the university.

Beyond scholarship and research, for 140 years UNC has had a tradition of student self-governance, grounded in honor and integrity. As described on its website, “The Office of Student Conduct supports the fostering and development of students at the University by promoting honor, integrity, and ethical decision making. This philosophy supports the student-led Honor System’s promotion of the Carolina Way…” The Instrument of Student Judicial Governance articulates the roles and responsibilities of the Honor System, involving not only students, but all members of the UNC community. The Preamble could not provide a more clear expression of the fundamental role of honor and personal integrity:

This Instrument…is adopted in furtherance of the University community’s shared commitment to the pursuit of truth, and the dissemination of knowledge to succeeding generations of citizens devoted to the high ideals of personal honor and respect for the rights of others. These goals can only be achieved in a setting in which intellectual honesty and personal integrity are highly valued; other individuals are trusted, respected, and fairly treated; and the responsibility for articulating and maintaining high standards is widely shared.

If the Honor System has any meaning at all for the UNC community, it should prompt the decision to abandon victories gained through dishonesty.

Four arguments have been raised against UNC taking this step. The first, “Others do it,” can be dispensed with easily. Most of us recall, as teens, parental admonitions that “If your friends jumped off a cliff, would you?” Nowhere in the mission of UNC or the Honor System is this comparative standard raised. If Duke or NC State cheats in athletic eligibility, it does not justify violations of integrity by UNC.

A second argument is that it is not fair to exact penalties, such as forfeits, from players who were in good standing as students while playing football and basketball. Indeed, the majority of players were academically eligible. As coaches often remind their players, “there is no ‘I’ in TEAM” and “what’s most important is the name on the front of the jersey and not the back.” These teams were constituted of players who were not academically eligible, so the teams suffer the consequences.

Third, some have argued that this is an academic scandal and that many players thought, in good faith, that they were registering for (if not actually taking) real classes. Is it fair to penalize students who believed that they were following the rules? This argument reflects the conflict of interest brought about by the entire Big Time sports enterprise and demonstrates the harm inflicted by Big Time sports on universities. On the one hand are the considerable efforts to keep athletes eligible, driven by the increasingly lavish financial payoffs to the coaches, officials, and media who oversee and benefit from Big Time sports. On the other hand, the conflicting interest is the academic integrity of universities. Big Time sports imposes the choice between eligibility and education. Why should athletes be put in a position where they “thought” they were taking legitimate classes, a position where there would be any doubt about the integrity of the academic mission? If this is an academic scandal then the university should pay the price, because the teams are simply one manifestation of the university. However, were the revenue sports acknowledged as the professional teams that they are, then it would be understandable, if not entirely acceptable, to allow those victories to stand, because the players need not be academically eligible.

Finally, the UNC administration, among others, has taken the position that the NCAA adjudication should be allowed to play out. This view seems to accept that the NCAA has been a responsible steward of academic integrity in Big Time sports – an assumption for which the record is hardly persuasive. More importantly, however, UNC should not dismiss its own capacity to make ethical decisions. It should not abdicate its responsibility to act with honor. UNC’s leaders should advance high standards of integrity in contrast to what may well be compromised standards by the NCAA or other judges of this ongoing scandal.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the courageous and brilliant Russian writer warned, “We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable.” Even though it is the less comfortable path, UNC’s leaders should forfeit the games won with ineligible players in order to reassert the primacy of the mission of scholarship, research, and creativity. This action would be an acknowledgement that Big Time sports have done grave damage to the University by undermining its mission and defiling its honor, that UNC has learned from these threats to the University. The pleasure that comes from the real triumph of acting with honor and integrity would enable UNC to begin to move on.