The University of North Carolina basketball program was handed a major victory on Friday morning when the NCAA announced the school would not be punished for academic fraud.
According to an investigation sanctioned by the school itself, North Carolina had for two decades offered student athletes a ‘shadow curriculum’ with around 200 classes which frequently required no attendance and only minimal work. Typically the students taking these courses played for the school’s football and basketball teams.
The NCAA did not dispute the accusation of academic fraud at North Carolina. However, the committee on infractions concluded it did not have the power to punish the school, in part, because the fraudulent classes were offered to all students – not just athletes.
North Carolina coach Roy Williams (in blue tie) celebrates the Tar Heels’ 2009 national title
The Tar Heels celebrate the 2017 national title after beating Kentucky in the NCAA Finals
‘While student-athletes likely benefited from the so-called ‘paper courses’ offered by North Carolina, the information available in the record did not establish that the courses were solely created, offered and maintained as an orchestrated effort to benefit student-athletes,’ explained Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey, who led the panel.
The investigation centered around independent study-style courses in the formerly named African and Afro-American Studies department. The infractions panel says North Carolina supported those courses as legitimate.
North Carolina was at risk of being forced to vacate multiple national championships, but instead will not face a single penalty. Since hiring Roy Williams as its basketball coach in 2003, the Tar Heels have won three NCAA tournaments.
Sankey claimed his panel was ‘troubled by the university’s shifting positions about whether academic fraud occurred on its campus,’ but decided that his committee was powerless to do anything in response.
‘NCAA policy is clear,’ Sankey said in a statement. ‘The NCAA defers to its member schools to determine whether academic fraud occurred and, ultimately, the panel is bound to making decisions within the rules set by the membership.’
Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams talks to his team during the game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on January 11, 2004 at the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
North Carolina’s accreditation body previously placed the school on probation in the wake of the scandal.
Only two people at North Carolina ultimately received NCAA sanctions in the multi-year academic case.
Former department chairman Julius Nyang’oro and retired office administrator Deborah Crowder were charged with refusing to cooperate with the NCAA probe. Nyang’oro refused to interview with NCAA investigators after the case was reopened in 2014. Crowder reconsidered and interviewed with investigators in May.
Nyang’oro received a five-year show-cause penalty lasting until Oct. 12, 2022. Crowder was not punished, but the NCAA says it is making note of her initial lack of cooperation.
One of the five charges against UNC focused on Jan Boxill for providing too much help on assignments in her role as a counselor for women’s basketball. But of the two violations found by the NCAA in the case, neither involved Boxill.
Her attorney, Randall Roden, issued a statement saying the multi-year case was ‘a terrible ordeal’ for Boxill. He added that her appearance at an August infractions hearing ‘gave her the opportunity to tell her side of the story’ to the NCAA.
Roden says Boxill ‘was there to tell the truth and she did.’