See what we have here? We have evidence not only of grades being given to athletes for at least a decade — but also that UNC academic support staff steered athletes to those classes. This can’t be dismissed as the rogue actions of a man named Julius Nyang’oro, the embattled former head of the Department of African and Afro-American Studies. If it was just him, well, that could be explained away to a certain extent. The school would be vulnerable to NCAA sanctions, but one man running amok? That’s not horrible.
What actually happened at North Carolina?
This is horrible.
Academic advisers steering athletes to Nyang’oro’s department. Athletes staying eligible by getting grades in some classes that didn’t even exist. Athletes who played football and men’s basketball.
Did any players on those NCAA championship teams attend bogus classes? According to the News & Observer, almost 67 percent of the students in those 54 classes were athletes. Most played football, but the newspaper reported that UNC records showed “basketball players had also enrolled. In two of the classes, the sole enrollee was a basketball player.”
but were not limited to — academic fraud. The NCAA poked around, found some stuff, but didn’t find this.
The NCAA didn’t find 54 bogus classes from 2007-11, or the unknown number of classes dating to 2001, filled mostly by UNC athletes. The NCAA hasn’t uttered a peep in recent days about these new allegations, either. Neither has the school. Not Roy Williams. Not anybody. The biggest response has been the creation of a website attacking the Raleigh reporter who is all over this story, including the Julius Peppers revelations. The website was created by a man named Carl Carey. Julius Peppers’ agent? A man named Carl Carey.
MD, UNC Physics, '97