NCAA Charges North Carolina With Five Violations Over Academic Fraud Scandal
Last year, former Tar Heel and NBA player, Rashad McCants, alleged that the University of North Carolina had been involved in an academic-fraud scandal.
A year later and the NCAA seemingly agreed. On Thursday, the NCAA charged UNC's athletic department with five Level I violations stemming revolving around academic fraud. The crux of the violations is that UNC athletes, including basketball players, received improper benefits from the school's African and Afro-American Studies department that weren't available to other students.
The summary of the five violations? Well, according to a 59-page notice of allegations from the NCAA, as obtained by ESPN:
There was a lack of institutional control and failure to "sufficiently monitor" interactions between the African and Afro-American Studies departments and athletes with athletes receiving "preferential access" to irregular classes.
Academic counselors "leveraged" relationships with the department's faculty to turn in papers for athletes, even suggesting assignments and recommending grades for them, from fall 2002 through summer 2011. In addition, the AFAM department's former chairman and staffers didn't cooperate with the NCAA investigation.
No coaches were named in the 59-page notice of allegations, but that doesn't mean the accusations haven't hit them.
"Everyone who loves Carolina is truly saddened by these allegations," Tar Heels men's basketball coach Roy Williams said in a statement, as reported by ESPN. "We aspire to and work toward meeting higher standards than the actions that warranted this notice. Our university and numerous outside groups have looked at every aspect of our academic and athletic life. As a result, Carolina has implemented scores of new processes and checks and balances that have undoubtedly made us a better university. Hopefully, we will never again receive such a notice."
UNC must file a response to the NCAA's allegations against them within 90 days.
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