UNC responded so well, it may have to take the NCAA to court.
The academic scandal that has plagued Carolina for going on five years has a chance to be over by the end of 2017, but that is all up to the NCAA Committee on Infractions. The university’s official response to the latest Notice of Allegations looks so sound that it may back the NCAA into meting out penalties UNC will not accept.
The response, released to the public this week, is detailed in a thorough manner, covering every allegation and nuance of the NCAA investigation with a detailed defense based on the bylaws created by its own member schools. If those bylaws are followed to the letter, there is not much of a case against Carolina.
Though it involves hundreds of pages of repudiation and addendum notes, the short-form response lays out systematically why the alleged irregularities stemming from the old AFAM department classes were an academic matter and not in the purview of the NCAA. Paramount among UNC’s points is that only 30 percent of the attendees were athletes and that the academic advisors who steered athletes and non-athletes to those classes did not work for, or at the behest of, the athletic department.
Plus, precedent is not on the side of the NCAA, which failed to penalize Auburn and Michigan for similar allegations in the past.
To maintain whatever credibility it has left in the eyes of the public, the NCAA may have to go way off the reservation and still hit Carolina with major punishment, especially those affecting particular sports programs, such as football and men’s basketball. The NCAA’s only way out is to satisfy widespread perception that UNC has cheated for years and penalize the school with a massive fine and some individual athletic teams with severe sanctions.
That, of course, would force UNC to sue the NCAA and send the entire case to court, where it may take another year or two to adjudicate. But once a judge reviews all of the allegations and UNC’s thoughtful response on every charge – from lack of institutional control to violations by certain athletes and perhaps coaches – the judge will likely rule the NCAA breached so many of its own bylaws the entire case will be thrown out.
It may cost Carolina millions more to get to a just result, but at least the NCAA can say that its penalties were thrown out of court. And perhaps that will save its reputation.
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