The Carolina Way VIII

[DevilDJ]

@kailman has been dishing some interesting information on the premium board. Check it out.

No premium. Sounds interesting though.

Mark Emmert: Allegations vs. Tar Heels likely within a month

NCAA president Mark Emmert said the final notice of allegations for the North Carolina investigation into academic fraud "will be done in the coming weeks or a month or so.''

In an interview with ESPN after his news conference Thursday, Emmert said the enforcement staff wants to get it done but also wants to make sure the facts are straight.

"The next step is the delivery of allegations,'' Emmert said.

Emmert said he had not been briefed on what would be in the notice of allegations.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/s...na-tar-heels-allegations-come-ncaa-next-month

 

[Mark Gastineau]

No premium. Sounds interesting though.

Don't worry, he said it was fair game to circulate:

From the poster

"Alright, here is the situation:

As you know, Dan Kane's article from yesterday strongly suggests that there were certain (UNC) university policies in place -- prior to 2006 -- that said that no more than 12 hours worth of Independent Studies courses could count towards graduation.
Those athletes that DID take more than 12 hours of I.S., and it counted towards their cumulative degrees/hours/GPA's, received impermissible benefits in the eyes of the NCAA -- this was all outlined in the NOA.

UNC has said that such a policy was only implemented beginning in 2006 --- and they made sure to tell the NCAA and SACS the same thing.

One might surmise that UNC was trying to prevent the years of 2005 (and earlier) from being affected.
And of course, we all know what happened in 2005 --- they won an NCAA title.

So just for the moment let's all assume that the NCAA chooses to ignore Kane's article, and the strong evidence that he supplies (via UNC's own documentation) that the 12-hour Independent Studies limit extended further back than 2006.
Let's assume that.

And that would be okay...

Because there is another academic policy from within UNC's own documentation that points to another impermissible benefit that at least one of its pre-2006 athletics was given.

UNC releases an Undergraduate Bulletin for each specific "College" every year.
One such release is for the College of Arts and Sciences, and it states the "Regulations and Requirements", as well as the "Policy on Awarding of Undergraduate Degrees and Transcript Notations". Essentially, the "academic rules" of being a student in said college.

There is a section that specifically pertains to Independent Studies, and this section has been consistent and unchanged since the early 2000's. (the bulletins are out there and online, and have been hard-copied saved as well)

That section on Independent Studies states, in part:



A. Students may enroll and begin work at any time during the year. They may be enrolled in a maximum of two courses at any one time. An Independent Studies course enrollment expires nine months from the date of enrollment.


////

As you might recall, Rashad McCants revealed on "Outside the Lines" that he rarely went to class. In fact, he stated that he NEVER went to class during the Spring semester of 2005 -- when UNC won the National Title -- but managed to make the Dean's List.

To bolster his claim of taking easy/no classes that semester, his transcript was shown during that "Outside the Lines" episode. Part of the image shown displayed his Spring 2005 classes:

As you can see, McCants took three no-doubt Independent Studies courses that semester (and likely a fourth course that would also be considered I.S. -- but definitely at least three).

This breaks the university's own policy that states a student "may be enrolled in a maximum of two (Independent Studies) courses at one time".
By being allowed to enroll in more than two I.S. courses, McCants was given an impermissible benefit.
Once he began that semester (in January of 2005) he became (retroactively) ineligible.
That means he was ineligible to participate in the 2005 National Title game -- thus invalidating that game's final result.

Conclusion:
Even if the NCAA does not accept the information provided in Dan Kane's article from yesterday regarding the 12-hour graduation limit on Independent Studies courses (pre-2006), there is another UNC policy that at least one former athlete was allowed to break -- and it was from 2005.

How many other athletes were allowed to take more than two Independent Studies courses at one time, and during which years?
I'm not convinced it's 2005 that UNC is trying to protect.

I think their "2006" cutoff ruse may have been to SUGGEST (to the NCAA and/or others) that 2005 was their concern... but I'm not so sure.
The association needs to take a look at other transcripts. From much earlier."



this is not a paid site so this isn't protected info ....
this poster and another have some very close connections to the COI. they both share when they can and are both confident with what is going to happen. I hope they are right . This is something that's being talked about. Dan kane has been on this for a long time and has been saving info for spots like this. Very crooked place unc is. there will be some more that he mentioned and the other guy as well.

 

[Mark Gastineau]

One more:

Just saw this info from the poster

"
One other thing real quick regarding Kane's article and the 12-hour Independent Studies "graduation limit" --- according to other documentation from unc itself, that limit has been in place since at least 1980.

1980.

Someone can cross-post this to the "Kane article" thread; time to fly"

 

[LetsGoDukies]

Manalishi posted this exact same thing on PP... Are kailman and Mana the same person?

 

[Mark Gastineau]

Manalishi posted this exact same thing on PP... Are kailman and Mana the same person?

Might have been his source, who knows.

 

[DevilDJ]

Speaking of "interesting information." Manalishi....


Posted: Today 8:59 AM Re: Surprise, surprise! UNC lied, Kane article pg27

manalishi
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What if... there's another unc policy that the NCAA inadvertently overlooked... that would further prove that unc's athletes were being given preferential treatment (i.e., impermissible benefits) -- thus retroactively affecting eligibility?

Hmmmm.


Posted: Today 9:43 AM Re: Surprise, surprise! UNC lied, Kane article pg27

manalishi
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No teasing.

Just trying to figure out the best way to get the info out. I'll probably post something soon.


Posted: Today 10:18 AM Re: Surprise, surprise! UNC lied, Kane article pg27

manalishi
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Alright, here is the situation:

As you know, Dan Kane's article from yesterday strongly suggests that there were certain (UNC) university policies in place -- prior to 2006 -- that said that no more than 12 hours worth of Independent Studies courses could count towards graduation. Those athletes that DID take more than 12 hours of I.S., and it counted towards their cumulative degrees/hours/GPA's, received impermissible benefits in the eyes of the NCAA -- this was all outlined in the NOA.

UNC has said that such a policy was only implemented beginning in 2006 --- and they made sure to tell the NCAA and SACS the same thing.

One might surmise that UNC was trying to prevent the years of 2005 (and earlier) from being affected. And of course, we all know what happened in 2005 --- they won an NCAA title.

So just for the moment let's all assume that the NCAA chooses to ignore Kane's article, and the strong evidence that he supplies (via UNC's own documentation) that the 12-hour Independent Studies limit extended further back than 2006. Let's assume that.

And that would be okay...

Because there is another academic policy from within UNC's own documentation that points to another impermissible benefit that at least one of its pre-2006 athletics was given.

UNC releases an Undergraduate Bulletin for each specific "College" every year. One such release is for the College of Arts and Sciences, and it states the "Regulations and Requirements", as well as the "Policy on Awarding of Undergraduate Degrees and Transcript Notations". Essentially, the "academic rules" of being a student in said college.

There is a section that specifically pertains to Independent Studies, and this section has been consistent and unchanged since the early 2000's. (the bulletins are out there and online, and have been hard-copied saved as well)

That section on Independent Studies states, in part:

A. Students may enroll and begin work at any time during the year. They may be enrolled in a maximum of two courses at any one time. An Independent Studies course enrollment expires nine months from the date of enrollment.

////

As you might recall, Rashad McCants revealed on "Outside the Lines" that he rarely went to class. In fact, he stated that he NEVER went to class during the Spring semester of 2005 -- when UNC won the National Title -- but managed to make the Dean's List.

To bolster his claim of taking easy/no classes that semester, his transcript was shown during that "Outside the Lines" episode. Part of the image shown displayed his Spring 2005 classes:

As you can see, McCants took three no-doubt Independent Studies courses that semester (and likely a fourth course that would also be considered I.S. -- but definitely at least three).

This breaks the university's own policy that states a student "may be enrolled in a maximum of two (Independent Studies) courses at one time". By being allowed to enroll in more than two I.S. courses, McCants was given an impermissible benefit. Once he began that semester (in January of 2005) he became (retroactively) ineligible. That means he was ineligible to participate in the 2005 National Title game -- thus invalidating that game's final result.

Conclusion:

Even if the NCAA does not accept the information provided in Dan Kane's article from yesterday regarding the 12-hour graduation limit on Independent Studies courses (pre-2006), there is another UNC policy that at least one former athlete was allowed to break -- and it was from 2005.

How many other athletes were allowed to take more than two Independent Studies courses at one time, and during which years?

 

[LetsGoDukies]

I guess we can assume that the case will go on a while longer rather than be completed in the coming weeks as speculated. I hope this new information results in much harsher punishment!

 

[DevilDJ]

Posted: Today 10:30 AM Re: Surprise, surprise! UNC lied, Kane article pg27

manalishi
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Personally, I'm not convinced it's 2005 that UNC is trying to protect.

I think their "2006" cutoff ruse may have been to SUGGEST (to the NCAA and/or others) that 2005 was their concern... but I'm not so sure. The association needs to take a look at other transcripts. From much earlier.


Posted: Today 11:34 AM Re: Surprise, surprise! UNC lied, Kane article pg27

manalishi
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Regarding the bold part above: Of course that's the way things SHOULD be, but lawyers exist in a world of semantics -- and unc has been fighting this thing all along through the eyes (and actions) of lawyers.

The NCAA has simply chosen to also use semantics as a way to hold unc (at least partially) responsible for its cheating.

Is it the most "right" and "fair" way of holding them responsible? Of course not. But life in general isn't fair, either.

Use what you have in order to accomplish what you can. This simply gives the NCAA more ammunition (semantics) to hold unc at least partially responsible for its willful cheating.

And to another poster's question: I don't know if the NCAA/COI is aware of this new info or not. I'm not in a position at the moment to pass it along; others will need to do some lifting and see to it if they wish.

 

[DevilDJ]

I guess we can assume that the case will go on a while longer rather than be completed in the coming weeks as speculated. I hope this new information results in much harsher punishment!

This is an interesting observation. On the one hand , unx has done everything possible to delay this thing. And , not fer nuthin' , it hasn't been bad for 'em. They played for an ACC Title in football , they won one in basketball and now they're in the Final Four. They also salvaged recruiting classes in both sports. On the other hand , this delay has cost them an enormous amount of money to fight the negative PR and only the most delusional of tarholes would still think their wonderful "carolina way" rep hasn't been shot to heck an' back. They're a punchline and always will be. True , that status won't cost 'em much ( if anything ) in the way of winning ballgames but let's face it. Winning ballgames is all the vast majority of holes care about anyway. They've shown an eager willingness to sacrifice just about anything and anybody to protect banners. Sacrificing their mythical "holier-than-thou" credo ain't no thang. No biggie. #JustWinBaby. Also , the delay has left plenty of time for more dirt to be unearthed ala the recent Dan Kane article. I'm willing to bet that won't be the last one either. unx still hasn't fully complied with the myriad of FOIA requests. Lord knows what's in those....

 

[DevilDJ]

Good breakdown...


Posted: Today 1:13 PM Re: Surprise, surprise! UNC lied, Kane article pg27

st8dukegrad87
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and to follow on to manalishi about "fake classes". The NCAA does not like to make determinations as to the legitimacy of a class, they view that as a university matter. The official UNC-CH position with respect to the "irregular" classes are that they are official and legitimate.

Just like a prosecutor, the NCAA has to charge what they can defend. It is much harder for the NCAA to argue "fake classes" when the university is fighting the charge. It is much easier to prosecute a clear cut violation of the university's own rule. This is why the Jay Smith/Dan Kane smoking gun is so important, it makes it easier for the NCAA to prosecute in a more expansive manner.

As others have said, Al Capone was not convicted of murder but tax evasion. Who really cares what they are guilty of, just that they are found guilty.

 

[DevilDJ]

Anyone STILL think the lawyering up and the money and the PR and the delays isn't about protecting Deano...?


Posted: Today 2:27 PM Re: Surprise, surprise! UNC lied, Manalishi speaks p31

manalishi
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One other thing real quick regarding Kane's article and the 12-hour Independent Studies "graduation limit" --- according to other documentation from unc itself, that limit has been in place since at least 1980.

1980.

Someone can cross-post this to the "Kane article" thread; time to fly.

 

[DevilDJ]

Syracuse-UNC In Final Four Exposes NCAA's Lack Of Principle

But thanks to academic fraud at both schools, this heavyweight match-up has become the Corruption Classic or the Scholastic Scandal Semifinal

No one I know who covers college sports was surprised by any of it. But we were stunned to learn that hundreds of University of North Carolina football and basketball players had availed themselves of either "aberrant" or "irregularly" taught courses, defined by ESPN.com as those which entailed "unauthorized grade changes, forged faculty signatures on grade rolls and limited or no class time." In fact, we now know some 226 North Carolina basketball players took these bogus courses for phony grades, for almost two decades.

So what has the NCAA done? Almost nothing, of course -- and it has being doing it for years. The NCAA argued that, because half the students in those classes were not athletes, it was a university matter, not an NCAA one. So it left the mess for the university to clean up. But it was a big enough mess for the UNC chancellor to resign over it.

In the UNC case, after public outrage slowly rose to the NCAA's threshold for taking action, years after the story first surfaced, it reluctantly started another plodding investigation, which it assures us will soon be complete. We can be confident than UNC will receive a punishment even more ridiculous than Coach Boeheim's -- but I wouldn't be surprised if Boeheim whines about that, too. For some reason.

And that brings us to the one bit of justice I can find in this Kafkaesque house of mirrors: During the NCAA's biggest week of the year, instead of celebrating the showcase that is the Final Four, the NCAA will have to wallow in the mess that it's created.

For once, that seems about right to me.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nca...-lack-of-principle/ar-BBrd3qd?ocid=spartanntp

 

[DevilDJ]

Ouch...!

UNC Scandal: The N&O Raises More Kane

The most dogged reporter covering the UNC scandal has raised the stakes again.

There used to be a joke that the one thing no one wanted to hear was that 60 Minutes is calling.

At UNC for the last several years, people must feel that way about the N&O's Dan Kane.

Kane has dug into the academic fraud scandal like no other reporter and on Thursday, he dropped another significant bomb.

Throughout the scandal, UNC has maintained to the public, the NCAA and SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) that a 12-hour limit was placed on independent study classes in 2006. Prior to that, the university has maintained, there was no limit in place.

However, Kane has established that is not the case: " [A] new document released by the university in March shows that the limit on independent studies started before 2003. Other evidence suggests that the limit was in place since the early 1990s."

This is significant for at least three reasons:

1) The university has misled the NCAA and SACS, and not for the first time.

2) With this information, the number of ineligible players the NCAA is looking at goes from 10 to nearly 150.

3) If the scandal is pushed back into the early 1990s, Dean Smith's legacy is at risk.

Let's be clear: whatever happens with NCAA is child's play. SACS wrote a letter to UNC previously which expressed serious irritation at being misled. They won't appreciate a repeat occurrence. SACS has the ability to put UNC on probation, which it currently is. It can also strip UNC of accreditation. You do not play with this organization.

That said, if the NCAA is dealing with 100+ players instead of 10, things change dramatically. UNC is already facing very serious allegations. No one has any idea what the NCAA is going to do, but options range from the usual scholarship and post-season restrictions to vacating the 2005 and 2009 titles to stripping the university of any number of wins during the years of the scandal. Heavy financial penalties are also possible.

Then there's the question of just when it started. We've told you before that we first heard about UNC using the African and Afro-American Studies program to get players through in 2002.

Specifically, we heard it while standing outside Cameron on March 3rd, close enough to the UNC team bus to see the players, who had just taken an epic beating, losing 93-68.

Obviously you can't prove anything based on what we heard in 2002, but we never forgot it, and it was fairly specific: UNC was using a specific department to grease the skids for basketball players.

So it's reasonable to assume this: if we heard about it in Durham in 2002, it had to be going on for a while prior to that point.

And if it dates back to the early 1990s, as Kane says, it dates back to the Smith era.

Obviously no one can ask Smith about it, since he's no longer with us. But that could potentially involve the 1993 championship team and the Final Four teams of 1994-95 and 1996-97.

The other striking thing about this latest revelation is how it fits into UNC's pattern of delay and obfuscation.

The N&O asked for documentation about changes to the 12-hour limit for independent studies prior to 2006. The university denied that it had any.

Repeatedly.

And the university said this to SACS: "Until Fall 2006 there was no defined limit on the number of independent study courses that could be applied toward an undergraduate degree."

And when asked about all of this, Chancellor Carol Folt and Provost James W. Dean Jr. simply forwarded interview requests to a spokesman, who offered no further information.

When she came to UNC, Dr. Folt promised to deal with the scandal openly and honestly. She's done everything but that.

She's become part of the problem. It's time for her to step down, and time for UNC to hire a leader who will actually deal with this comprehensively, once and for all.

http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/2016/4/1/11344032/unc-scandal-the-n-o-raises-more-kane

 

[DevilDJ]

Good ol' Roy...lyin' his azz off...


UNC's Roy Williams talks about coaching during NCAA investigation

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/unc/unc-now/article69469302.html

 

[DevilDJ]

 

[DevilDJ]

 

[MikeD2891]

So I have some questions:

So there's all this talk about how there's been X amount of athletes over the course of a couple of decades who were taking these sham courses. Is it true that every single game of every season where a player on the team was ineligible causes a forfeiture of each one of those games? If so, and let's say for argument's sake that every season since 1993 UNC had at least one ineligible player, that all their seasons up to 2011 (assuming they stopped the bogus classes) should be forfeited?

Emmert said he had not been briefed on what would be in the notice of allegations.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/s...na-tar-heels-allegations-come-ncaa-next-month

Should that statement not bother people? This is a monumental occurrence and would be the biggest in NCAA history (I believe). So why would he not be informed at least vaguely on what's going to be in the NOA?

according to other documentation from unc itself, that limit has been in place since at least 1980.

Which would mean the 1982 national title could be suspect as well. What if Jordan broke the rules while at UNC??

 

[DevilDJ]

So there's all this talk about how there's been X amount of athletes over the course of a couple of decades who were taking these sham courses. Is it true that every single game of every season where a player on the team was ineligible causes a forfeiture of each one of those games? If so, and let's say for argument's sake that every season since 1993 UNC had at least one ineligible player, that all their seasons up to 2011 (assuming they stopped the bogus classes) should be forfeited?

Short answer , yes. Except it wouldn't be a forfeit...the NCAA "vacates" those games. Personally , I think it SHOULD be a forfeit....or at least counted as an "L." Either way , the offending school ( unx in this case ) loses the win.

Should that statement not bother people? This is a monumental occurrence and would be the biggest in NCAA history (I believe). So why would he not be informed at least vaguely on what's going to be in the NOA?

It IS bothersome but not because he doesn't know. Clearly , he's lying. Like you said , he has SOME knowledge of what awaits unx ( if anything.) These days , people might say , "Well , the NCAA doesn't make specific comments about on-going investigations and he's just delivering broad statements yada yada yada" but where I come from it's called , "lying."

Which would mean the 1982 national title could be suspect as well. What if Jordan broke the rules while at UNC??

Without a doubt , 1982 is suspect and Jordan most definitely "broke the rules." He majored in Geography. Cravey , btw , is a current prof at unx...

 

[DevilDJ]

 

[DevilDJ]

Gregory Clay is a Washington columnist and a former editor for McClatchy-Tribune News Service. He is a 1980 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.....

Flawed Final Four academic success

UNC in middle of pack among Sweet 16 in graduation rate

The Tar Heels, and their Final Four foe Syracuse, have had recent academic scandals

Some believe college student-athletes should be allowed to major in their respective participatory sports


Each year, The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport releases an academic report ranking the final 16 teams in the big-money NCAA basketball tournament from best to worst. That means this month’s Final Four teams rank, in order:

Villanova is No. 1 with a Graduation Success Rate of 100, in a four-way tie overall.

North Carolina is next with an 80 GSR, for No. 8 overall

Oklahoma next with a 71, for 10th overall.

And Syracuse with a lowly 55, for 14th overall.

Now, some explanatory information: The GSR, implemented in 2005, is designed to provide an accurate measure of graduation performance by tracking student-athletes for six years after their admittance into an NCAA member school. The measurement used available data through the 2013-14 academic school year.

In effect, Villanova would have been a No. 1 seed in the Sweet 16 based on the GSR academic concept. In fact, based on The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport study, the top four seeds would have been Villanova, Duke, Notre Dame and Kansas, all with a GSR of 100.

Dr. Richard Lapchick, director of TIDES, chairman of the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program at the University of Central Florida and lead author of the study, mentioned in his findings that “there are 10 women’s and six men’s teams with GSRs above 90 percent. In addition, 94 percent of the women’s teams and 81 percent of the men’s teams graduated at least 60 percent of their basketball student-athletes.”

But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Despite all of this hoopla, for some, there’s also March Sadness in the men’s world.

North Carolina has been the focus of a seemingly interminable NCAA investigation for academic fraud involving violations committed from 1993 to 2011. In March 2015, Syracuse was cited for a litany of infractions, ranging from academic misconduct to violations of drug-test policies to impermissible benefits. A scenario that caused the NCAA to suspend Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim for the first nine Atlantic Coast Conference games of the 2015-16 season, including a stipulation that barred him from contact with his players.

As a result of the transgressions, dating back to 2001, Syracuse also lost three scholarships each year for four years. Boeheim was forced to forfeit 108 wins on his coaching record (not including Syracuse’s 2003 national championship), and in an effort to take a sting out of the hornet’s nest to impress the NCAA, the school penalized itself with a self-imposed postseason ban in 2015.

North Carolina’s controversy centers on the school’s African and Afro-American Studies department, focusing on classes comprising a heavy enrollment of student-athletes from multiple sports, including basketball. They were labeled as “paper-only, no-show” classes in that students didn’t meet on a regular course basis and were asked merely to submit a “paper” for a high grade at its conclusion.

And it gets only worse: Several former North Carolina student-athletes from multiple sports, in the spring of 2015, sued UNC, claiming the school failed to adequately educate them, thereby preventing them from procuring meaningful jobs.

One of the lawsuits stated: “For the last 18 years, from 1993 through at least 2011, UNC, widely regarded as one of the nation’s elite public institutions of higher education, systematically and purposely failed to educate many of its students, and particularly its student-athletes, by enrolling them in hundreds of sham courses — sometimes in the guise of lecture courses and sometimes in the guise of independent study courses — that involved no professional involvement, offered little rigor and no real education.”

Some student-athletes asserted that they yearned to declare majors in rigid disciplines, such as computer science and pre-med, but were steered instead to less challenging courses as a way to ensure their playing eligibility. Not a good look in Chapel Hill.

While Syracuse already has been issued its slate of sanctions, North Carolina still awaits its fate in the penalty phase. During the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament, which flaunts a 14-year, $10.8-billion television deal with CBS and Turner networks, NCAA President Mark Emmert told USA Today, “Sometime in the relatively near future we’ll move toward a resolution,’’ without suggesting a deadline.

Some have suggested that big-time, revenue-producing, college student-athletes should be allowed to major in their respective participatory sports. Then, we likely wouldn’t be inundated with incidents of academic fraud or eligibility conundrums. Really, what athlete would flunk out of his own sport.

Under that format, Syracuse probably wouldn’t have been embarrassed on a national stage, and North Carolina wouldn’t be wondering if it still can attract blue-chip high school stars who are distracted by concerns that UNC could face stiff NCAA punishment that negatively affects their marquee value.

Salacious scenarios never end in major-college money sports. Each spring, we engage in this hand-wringing about what’s wrong with college basketball. We turn to the sports scandal sheets while striking a musing gaze of “We thought we had seen it all.” Apparently not.

Perhaps, that’s the real reason we call this annual exercise March Madness … with a smudge.

http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article69559027.html

 

[DevilDJ]

 

[DevilDJ]

 

[DevilDJ]

Fraud and the Final Four

Syracuse U and the U of North Carolina meet in Final Four of men's basketball, following season when one team's coach missed nine games for NCAA violations and the other remained under investigation for high-profile case of academic fraud.

When the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Syracuse University face off in the Final Four of the National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament this weekend, the game will be a clash between two storied institutions with equally revered coaches. It will also be a battle between two athletic programs plagued by cases of academic fraud.

Syracuse entered this year’s tournament following a season in which its head coach sat out nine conference games for NCAA violations. The University of North Carolina remains under investigation for one of the most egregious cases of academic fraud in NCAA history.

While UNC is likely to receive some form of punishment and Syracuse already has been sanctioned, critics of big-time college athletics say they worry few lessons have been learned from the two scandals -- and that the meeting of two such troubled programs on the NCAA’s biggest stage is evidence that winning games will always trump academic impropriety.

"Schools will fight tooth and nail to protect their winning coaches from punishment," Ridpath said. "Institutions rarely say, 'Yes, this happened, we screwed up and we'll take this punishment.' They go down swinging, and that makes the system look even worse."

The scandal at Syracuse, many would argue, pales in comparison to what took place for nearly two decades at the University of North Carolina. For 18 years, some employees at UNC Chapel Hill knowingly steered about 3,000 students -- 1,500 of them athletes -- toward no-show “paper courses” that never met, were not taught by any faculty members and in which the only work required was a single research paper that received a high grade no matter the content.

Roy Williams, the men’s basketball coach, maintains he was not aware of the fraud. “We had a problem,” Williams said last weekend. “We're embarrassed, we're mad, we're ticked off about what happened. We know men's basketball had nothing to do with it and we're very proud about that.”

Yet, the majority of those in the know were academic advisers to men's basketball and football players, the latter group of which comprised more than half of the athletes taking the courses, according to a report the university released in 2014. In television interviews that year, a former player under Williams -- a member of his 2005 championship team -- said players enrolled in the paper courses and that the head coach was aware of the fraud.

That team accounted for 35 enrollments in the phony courses, according to the university, and men's basketball players accounted for more than 12 percent of all athletes taking the courses.

The NCAA currently is conducting its second investigation into the fake classes. The association's first attempt, which concluded the fraud was not related to athletics, was widely criticized as inadequate following UNC's own finding that nearly half of the students who took the courses were athletes. Just 4 percent of the student body are athletes. In a notice of allegations the NCAA sent to the university last year, the men’s basketball program was not specifically mentioned.

Bob Malekoff, a lecturer and adviser in UNC's Department of Exercise and Sport Science and the former director of research for the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University, said when a university’s basketball program is as well-known and beloved as those at UNC and Syracuse, a team can “easily bounce back” from scandal. There may be short-term ramifications that affect a certain roster of players, such as missing a postseason tournament, Malekoff said, but any long-term effects for “brand-name” programs and their coaches are rare.

....In a response to a lawsuit filed last year by two former UNC athletes, the NCAA's lawyers clarified the association's role, writing that the NCAA "did not assume a duty to ensure the quality of the education of student-athletes."

During the Thursday news conference, Mark Emmert, the NCAA's president, said he had no reservations about UNC and Syracuse appearing in the Final Four. Since discovering the fraud at UNC, the university has fired many of those connected to the scandal and introduced clearer policies on how athletic officials should interact with faculty and tutors. Syracuse, too, has fired those directly implicated in its fraud case and served the related sanctions, including those it self imposed.

“The system is not failing,” said Eddie Comeaux, an associate professor of higher education at the University of California at Riverside. “The well-being of the system’s most vulnerable actors, the athletes, is not being protected, but that’s because the benefits of other stakeholders -- coaches and sponsors -- supersede any academic obligation. It is not ironic. It is not surprising that UNC and Syracuse are in the Final Four because the system is set up to benefit these kinds of programs. The system is not failing. It is doing exactly what it is intended to do.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/news...cademic-fraud-meet-ncaa-basketball-tournament

 

[DevilDJ]

 

[DevilDJ]

Posted: Today 9:28 AM Re: Surprise, surprise! UNC lied, Manalishi speaks p3

manalishi
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Does anyone remember what was "definitely going to happen" with Austin, Little, and the other football players in the week leading up to that LSU game? What about what was "definitely going to happen" with PJ and the Kentucky game? How about what was "definitely" going to be revealed and exonerated via the Wainstein Report, as stated publicly by multiple unc mouthpieces? And numerous other occasions; too many to recall right now.

Yeah, the same thing every time... what was "definitely going to happen" is NOT what ended up happening.

C'mon people.

 

[MikeD2891]

My only worry is that all these things being discovered by reporters like Dan Kane and the other people out there on Twitter and on these boards won't be noticed or used by SACS. I would think these groups would be more thorough and things like what Dan Kane has discovered were nothing new in regards to what SACS and even NCAA had discovered before these files were made public.

 

[DevilDJ]

Ridpath...


UNC v. Syracuse is the Game we All Deserve!

As I sit here like millions of people waiting for the Final Four to tip off, I, like many, am pondering the irony of tonight’s Syracuse-North Carolina game and the underlying academic scandals associated with both programs. There has already been so much written about this in the mainstream media with most in the media assailing and lamenting the fact that these two teams are playing and the hypocrisy of the NCAAs collegiate model.

While we should be talking about college students playing college sports and participating in the penultimate event of their basketball careers, we are yet again examining the dirty open secret about intercollegiate athletics, and that is a tremendous lack of academic integrity. Wait for it–it is not about education and it certainly is not about the so-called “student-athletes.” However in my opinion, this is actually fine, let’s just stop lying about it and calling college sports what we hope it to be instead of what it really is.

Sadly UNC, and to a lesser extent Syracuse, were embroiled in academic fraud scandals. There is no other way to slice it. The absolute so called core issue of intercollegiate athletics, which is academic integrity, has been violated by two of our premier academic institutions for winning and revenue generation. It is not just these two schools, it is happening virtually everywhere and it is time we accept it and simply reexamine how we do business. When you have the institution representing the worst academic fraud case in NCAA history in UNC playing in the Final Four, we all need to look in the mirror. It seems the reward always outweighs the risk. Honestly though–do we really even care? I just listened to several talking heads at ESPN try to downplay the North Carolina scandal lest it taints the game. Sorry guys–it is as bad as it seems and would not have gotten to the level it did but for the benefit to athletics. That is why I don’t think we really care, because if we did, more would be outraged rather than trying to justify it. If we truly cared about academic integrity, we would be packing stadiums at D2 and D3 schools to watch something closer to an actual “student-athlete.”

Personally I have used my many forums to publicly assail UNC and Syracuse on their transgressions. I have spent the bulk of my ire directed at UNC for obvious reasons. The level of fraud their is almost unfathomable. My disgust is even more palpable because even at my most jaded, I still wanted to believe there were schools who at least made a strong attempt to do it “the right way.” Of course I was one of the last people I know who held out the Lance Armstrong didn’t really take steroids and OJ didn’t brutally murder two people. I wanted to believe the and some schools never would go there, and I certainly believed that about North Carolina and even admired them from afar. Yes I even believed the Carolina Way wasn’t a myth.

However–facts are stubborn things and bottom line-I simply was hurt by the betrayal and the total blatant cheating by one of our public ivies that essentially lied for years about doing it better than everyone else. I thought there might be a few good ones out there and the UNC scandal stripped any remaining innocence I may have maintained toward intercollegiate athletics. The indiscretions haven’t hurt Syracuse or North Carolina-they are in the Final Four and I am certainly going to watch. However–I know what I am watching and it has nothing to do with academics and “student-athletes.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/bdavidr...cuse-is-the-game-we-all-deserve/#3646e33c27dd

 

[DukeDenver]

Great info guys! Keep bringing the goods.

 

[DevilDJ]

 

[DevilDJ]

"...an' I really like thankin' how Coach Smith is a-wearin' that sheet-eatin' grin of his. He got this whole shebang a-kickstarted with all that there a-clusterin' junk that I don't know nuthin' 'bout."

 

[DevilDJ]

MVP...????

 

[DevilDJ]

 

[OldasdirtDevil]

Made a small change.

OFC

 

[skysdad]

I'm beginning to feel that unc's men's basketball team is going to get off with nothing. What an injustice if it happens. OFC

 

[DevilDJ]

Made a small change.

OFC

"Up yours Roy." lulz....

NCAA trying to bring clarity to academic misconduct case

Soon after Syracuse or North Carolina — two schools that have been entangled in academic misconduct issues — plays for the national championship, the NCAA Division I council is likely to approve the first changes in 33 years to the way the association regulates classroom improprieties.

At North Carolina, the NCAA is investigating the role of athletic department staffers in steering athletes toward bogus independent studies classes. The NCAA took a while to become involved in North Carolina's issues because the fake classes were available to all students, not just athletes. Emmert has said, without being specific, the conclusion of that investigation is near.

At the 2015 NCAA convention, NCAA vice president of enforcement Jon Duncan said he felt academic misconduct was on the rise in college sports and that his department was handling 20 open investigations.

"The enforcement staff continues to treat academic misconduct as a priority," Duncan said in a statement to the AP on Saturday. "We believe that is consistent with member expectations and best for the student-athletes. We are still seeing significant activity in this area."

"What are the regulations that UNC would have or any institution would have that would indicate to them what steps they need to take," McDavis said. "Then the line of demarcation for us is that if there had been student-athletes and coaches and employees in athletics involved in the matter, obviously then it becomes an NCAA issue. But we wanted to make clear that our fundamental belief is that first and foremost these are institutional matters that ought to be dealt with under the rules regulations and policies that the institution has in place."

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article69607107.html

 

[DevilDJ]

But unx isn't a national punchline or anything , right...?


Academically Sketchy Program Defeats Academically Sketchy Program, 83-66

No. 1 UNC, a school with a men’s basketball team composed of enrolled students, beat No. 10 Syracuse, another school with a men’s basketball team composed of enrolled students, 83-66 on Saturday night in Houston, Texas to advance to the very important men’s college basketball National Championship game. Each team played it fast and loose, but ultimately, Syracuse’s program had to fall.

The basketball programs of UNC and Syracuse were both recently charged by the NCAA for “a lack of institutional control,” but despite each program having its private mockery of the term “student-athlete” made public through NCAA notices in 2015, each survived a competition between their collegiate athletic peers to advance to the 2016 Final Four.

UNC, on the other hand, is still awaiting its punishment following a nearly decades-long systematic cheating of academic standards by over a hundred athletes including many basketball players — which involved enrollment in fake classes within the African studies department.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/syracuse-unc-2016-final-four_us_570069c6e4b0daf53aefdd3a

 

[Lionel_Hutz]

UNC will win the title tomorrow night and they will receive no punishment ever. Such is life.

 

[DevilDJ]

Takes some shots at other coaches ( K too ) but he blisters unx and Roy....



Commentary: NCAA Tourney a showcase of coaching corruption and arrogance

It is of course only fitting that North Carolina on Saturday advanced to the Monday night’s title game in the NCAA’s Tournament of Lies.

More than any other school, North Carolina, for decades one of the world’s truly great public institutions, has come to symbolize the college basketball’s ugly side, the real March Madness.

No other institution is more emblematic of how so many of America’s finest universities have sold their souls in pursuit of March glory and the Faustian pacts they’ve made with the lords of the hardwood who have suffocated and corrupted the game.

So another college basketball season ends the only way it could or should: with North Carolina, long one of the nation’s marquee programs, NCAA penalties looming over it, front and center against Villanova in the sport’s showcase game.

The Final Fraud

Behind his Mayberry routine, Roy Williams, North Carolina’s folksy coach, is just as thin skinned as his neighbor the Pope of Durham, every bit in denial as Boeheim.

In an interview on the Dan Patrick Show last week, Williams warned that Washington Post staff writer Kent Babb “better step carefully.” Babb’s crime? Writing a in-depth, thoroughly researched piece on Williams’ health and the school’s current NCAA problems. “

All that other stuff that sometimes I call ‘junk’ has been talked about too much,” Williams told reporters recently.

What Williams dismisses as “junk” was described as a “lack of institutional control” by the NCAA in a 59-page notice of allegations against the Tar Heel athletic program released last June. Calling it a “severe breach of conduct,” by North Carolina officials and coaches the NCAA said there was a widespread practice at UNC of funneling academically struggling Tar Heel athletes “particularly in the sports of football, men's basketball and women's basketball” in order to maintain their eligibility.

Rashad McCants, a star on North Carolina’s 2005 Final Four champions, told ESPN he was in danger of being declared academically ineligible after flunking two classes during the fall 2004 term. After conferring with Williams, McCants told ESPN he was directed to a series of “paper classes” in the school’s Afro and African American Studies department. McCants said he made the Dean’s List for the Spring 2005 term after earning straight A’s in AAAS courses despite not attending a single class, a result that calls to mind a line in “The Second Coming,” a novel by North Carolina alum Walker Percy.

“You can get all A’s and still flunk life.”

Many of the AAAS courses only required a single paper and of those papers, many were written for players by tutors or academic advisors, according to former employees of the school’s athletic advisory office.

Since Williams returned to Chapel Hill in 2003 there have been 167 basketball player enrollments in AAAS classes. Mary Willingham, a former athletic department academic counselor and a whistleblower in the case, told CNN that she studied 183 Tar Heel basketball and football players and found that 60 percent read at a fourth to eighth-grade level. Ten percent of the athletes studied read at a third-grade level or below.

Make no mistake, NCAA penalties are coming to Chapel Hill, perhaps with “One Shining Moment” still echoing through the campus pines. The question is will the NCAA issue penalties that meet the crime?

This isn’t a $100 handshake between a booster and a recruit, this isn’t even Cam Newton being shopped around by his father.

This is worse than UNLV. Worse than USC. Worse than SMU. This isn’t something that can be dealt with by handing out another nine-game “vacation.” This is a great university that has committed the ultimate betrayal by willingly failing to fulfill its core mission and foremost responsibility – to educate and nurture its students.

The North Carolina case gives the NCAA a unique opportunity to send a message to the lords of the hardwood and all their talking head apologists. In deciding whether it wants to end the March to Madness, the NCAA should consider the words of another North Carolina grad, the great American historian C. Vann Woodward (PhD. 1937).

“The history of intellectual growth and discovery clearly demonstrates the need…(to) challenge the unchallengeable.”

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/ncaa-710667-game-basketball.html

 

[DevilDJ]

 

[DevilDJ]

unx alum Bob Lee...


Roy goes full “Ernest T.”: “I ain’t no creature!”

It happened in his post-game presser…. when it shoulda and coulda been all about the youngsters and their impressive Win over Syracuse…. Coach Roy “Dr. Jekyl” Williams morphed AGAIN into full “Mr Hyde” which in Ol’ Roy’s case is “Ernest T. Bass”….. terminally self-absorbed Town Nut.

That title line “I ain’t no creature” is, for those who haven’t memorized every Mayberry script… a classic Ernest T. Bass line along with “How do you do Mrs Wy-Lee?” …. and “It’s Me It’s Me… It’s Ernest T.”

I hate to say “I called it”. It was a pretty obvious call anyone coulda made. With Bubba cringing in the wings and with Roy’s long-time “keeper” – SID Steve Kirschner – searching frantically for the tranquilizer dart…. Roy went vintage Roy.

Houston…. Roy’s Got A Problem

….. and it’s spelled R – O – Y.

Here is the Foxsports.com Link. “Ernest T. Roy” “picked up a brick and flung it”.…

http://www.foxsports.com/college-ba...second-guessing-criticism-marcus-paige-040216

With a worldwide audience having watched Villanova completely Nuke Oklahoma and then Royz Boyz surgically peel Boeheim’s Orange setting up a very appealing National Finals….

Roy COULDA just strung together five minutes of well-worn coach-speak clichés, throw in a few “dadgumits”, take a sip of his Coca Cola and exit Stage Left. But OH NO! Not our boy Roy. ….To quote Deputy Fife – “He’s a Nut!”

Let me reiterate for the umpteenth time times two…. as a basketball coach Roy Williams abso-damn-lutely knows his stuff. You don’t get ever-how-many Ws he has… and how many trips to TFF… and the chance to win three Nattys… and do it with smoke and mirrors and a few Alcindors, Magics, Waltons, Jordans. I do not begrudge Roy his plaque in Springfield at all.

Hellfire, I don’t even begrudge him his “ever-loosening screw”. God created “the un-hinged Roys of this world” just for me to have a bumper crop of column fodder. I accept full responsibility for Roy Being Roy Being Ernest T. Bass. Mea culpa.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know the hard-core ABCers, with spittle-spewing from between tightly-clenched teeth, are all screaming Les Robinson or “Herb” or even Pete Gaudet coulda done it (Roy’s success) if they’d had “The Scheme” keeping their players eligible. Maybe…. who knows.

And maybe on some Great Getting Up Morning, Roy will have to pay that piper…. maybe some of us will actually still be alive to see it…. maybe.

Roy Williams can “coach” with the best of’em…. of his generation. There are damn few, if any, “choir boys” in Roy’s Generation of Big Time College Coaches. They all wade hip-deep 24/7 in the putrid cesspool of recruiting and Fat Cat bull****.

The surprise was NOT that Two of the four FF coaches (Roy & “Jimmy”) are linked to mega-malfeasances. The surprise is that it is “only two”. That Lon Kruger and Jay Wright are not….. that we know of.

As Roy continues on his never-ending “Poor Poor Pitiful Persecuted Me” Tour…. what might we expect between now and midnight Monday?

Will Roy require every member of “the media” to feel his nail-scarred hand”? Will Roy pull up his $150 Peter Millar shirt to show us where the Centurion’s spear pierced his side?

Has there EVER been a nationally prominent coach more self-absorbed ….. more over-the-top delusional? More totally convinced that it’s ALL ABOUT HIM ….. It’s ALL ABOUT ROY?

http://bobleesays.com/2016/04/03/roy-goes-full-ernest-t-i-aint-no-creature/