Dive Summary:
- The NCAA has concluded that it has no jurisdiction in the case of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students (not all of whom were athletes) who took African and Afro-American Studies courses with minimal faculty supervision and contact, and were rewarded grades for work that wasn't reviewed.
- An investigation by UNC officials found no evidence that students in any of the 54 classes between 2007 and 2011 received grades without submitting written work, nor any evidence that athletes received favorable treatment, limiting the NCAA's role as none of its "extra benefit" rules were broken.
- The only case of an athlete taking any of the classes and being declared ineligible had more to do with an academic tutor plagiarizing a paper for former football player Michael McAdoo than with McAdoo's enrollment in the class.
From the article:
It may seem counterintuitive that the National Collegiate Athletic Association would take no issue - formally, at least - with University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill athletes taking no-show classes whose illegitimate passing grades would ultimately count toward the students' athletic eligibility. The NCAA requires that, in order to compete, athletes continue down a consistent academic path toward their degree, earning at least six credit hours each term and meeting minimum grade point averages, which vary depending on an institution's own standards for graduation. ...