1) The NCAA had pretty much concluded after giving SMU the death penalty that they would never, ever do this again. All it did was consign a top-level program to three decades of suckage, and destroy the Southwest Conference, which led to a destructive game of Musical Chairs in conference hopping. Otherwise a post-Sandusky Penn State would certainly have gotten this punishment.
2)The situation now is that these Super Conferences like the ACC, SEC and Big Ten are more powerful than the NCAA itself. Start ticking them off and they may just pick-up their balls and leave to start their own athletic organization, leaving the NCAA with the Troys and Ball States of the world.
If I were some of these conference presidents I would be in talks to ditch the NCAA. They are a total joke. If you can’t punish a school for academic fraud what is the point? If the NCAA showed up on my campus for an investigation I would send them packing and tell them see you in court where you can defend blatant discrimination.
Had the Kentucky basketball or Alabama football been involved in this type of cheating they would have received heavy penalties. UNCC the University of North Carolina Cheats get a pass because they are the ACC snitch/bitch to the NCAA and they are the sainted University of North Carolina no less.