• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Academic scandal at UNC-Chapel Hill involving basketball and football programs

Status
Not open for further replies.

Big-E

Member
So from what I understand UNC gave grades to athletes and tried to cover it up?

Pretty much though they apparently set up classes of one student to facilitate this easier so it is even worse than one prof marking things more forgiving.
 

Mully

Member
Pretty much though they apparently set up classes of one student to facilitate this easier.

Setup classes for a student? Like they just had a fake class setup for him?

I was an athlete for a short period at a D1 school, we did get a few benefits (doing labs at the end of the season, allowed to miss class for practice and games) but we were never given grades by professors because we weren't that great of a sports school. Although if we were given that much, I'm sure it's a lot worse at most of the schools that actually matter.
 

Jay Sosa

Member
Don't care about the football program but let the bball team alone D:

So from what I understand UNC gave grades to athletes and tried to cover it up?

doesn't any school? How is this a scandal?

What's the over/under on whether any penalty will be worse than Penn States?

I'll give you one million bucks if it's even half as bad.

Gotta love athletes who aren't really there to learn taking spots from people who do. While there are a host of athletes who do actually give a fuck about their college education it's kind of bullshit that there are ones who don't and get fixed grades on a scholarship. The whole athletics issue in college is just gross.

Well the athletes basically make millions for the school and get paid NOTHING in return(officially). It's not hard to see why so many programs try to get even the dumbest guys through school to keep 'em eligible. Not that it makes it right, obviously. But (some of) the colleges depend on these gross athletics.
 

alstein

Member
I think it's a well-established that athletes get fixed grades. I hope this does something to curve it, but it'll just make things more covert in other places.

There's a big difference between fixed grades and not even having to go to class at all.

Pretty much the entire 1993 team, except for Eric Montross, was in that sham program.

Also, the head of ESPN is a grad, so not expecting much help uncovering this over at ESPN. Penn St. also did these guys a huge favor.

This is the case the NCAA should be going after- but UNC basketball is one of the NCAA's biggest cash cows (remember, they don't get money from footbowl bowls)

Add to that football is already on probation for paying players (so they could play in the Music City Bowl)- and LOL.

UNC is the Chavo Guerrero to the SEC's Eddie Guerrero. Can't even cheat to win.
 
Can we turn this thread into making fun of dumb athletes?

Dumbest Athlete nominee: Vanderbilt's John Jenkins

Today's nominee is Vanderbilt guard, John Jenkins, and his stunning essay about...meat? Women? Women who don't eat meat? It manages to be both sexist and anthropological and pro-meat.

From the Vandy student who found the paper: In the freshman dorms at Vanderbilt University, there are classrooms in the basement where there are computers hooked up to projectors. They often have classes in these rooms. I found this paper on the computer from one, John Jenkins. Anytime someone says the athletes at 'smart' schools are smarter than big state schools, they are FUCKING IDIOTS.

Enjoy.

-snip

"Women and their decision to eat meat has become a hot topic in the world today. In the early years women would eat meat just as much as men would and would make sure there was some kind of meat on the table for their family to eat. Meat was said to give you strong bones and keep you alive with energy throughout your day. There was not much of an emphasis on whether the meat was healthy for you or if it was going to make you sick the next day. There were also no questions on what kind of animal was getting killed to fill their stomachs up. Meat was a lot like other things in the household, they were hard to come by. Meat would be hunted and went through a large process before anybody would have thought about eating it. In today's world I guess you could say in the twenty-first century that we are considered spoiled. We no longer have to go out and hunt our own food or go out the way to go buy some. Meat is packaged in almost every grocery store in America. The only issue now is that many people, mostly women are becoming more aware of what the animals are going through, and they are focusing on eating healthier and becoming vegans or vegetarians. There are very few men that have made this decision to become vegetarians and vegans, just like in previous years when the meat was being hunted and killed, if you did not eat meat you would have been considered feminine and looked at as not apart of being a man."

READ THIS. This kid was a VANDY student. He now plays for the Atlanda Hawks.
 

Jay Sosa

Member
UNC is the Chavo Guerrero to the SEC's Eddie Guerrero. Can't even cheat to win.

lol, nice reference.

But seriously this reminds me of the outrage when some athlete at the olympics or the TDF is tested positive. Is it stupid to get caught? Sure. But let's not act like this is something scandalous or surprising.
 

alstein

Member
lol, nice reference.

But seriously this reminds me of the outrage when some athlete at the olympics or the TDF is tested positive. Is it stupid to get caught? Sure. But let's not act like this is something scandalous or surprising.

Part of the reason it's scandalous is they're "holier then thou" attitude. It's super-hypocritical.
 

kmfdmpig

Member
One of the possible problems for the school is that there are implications outside of athletics. Having someone other than the faculty member signing off on grade changes and undermining the academic rigor in such a systematic way can lead to accreditation issues and somewhat tarnish the reputation of the school as a whole.

Also, in looking at the transcript it looks like there are a lot of independent studies. Colleges tend to frown on too many of those, particularly at the undergraduate level, as they are not often ideal for learning, are less cost effective for the school (waste of tax payer subsidies). It seems more than coincidental that those are some of his best grades. Very convenient.

It looks like Julius Peppers paid the college back for giving him a fake degree:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Peppers
In February 2009, Peppers donated $500,000 to a scholarship program that supports black students at his alma mater of North Carolina.
 

Timedog

good credit (by proxy)
michael-jordan-lol.gif

First post strikes again.
 

Pimpwerx

Member
This happens everywhere. At least anywhere that has a competitive D1 program. UNC just got caught, that's all. Scandal? I'm not sure. Maybe this will get people to open their eyes to what really goes on. Athletes are recruited to make the schools money, not to get an education. Just call them what they are, farm leagues. Pay the players and give them the option of pursuing an education if they feel like it. The charade has gone on long enough. PEACE.
 

Brendonia

"Edge stole Big Ben's helmet"
All this tells me is that my presence as a student is a death knell for big time athletic programs.

Undergrad Penn State Class of '06
MBA UNC-CH Class of '11

Damn this sucks I love both schools...

Where should I get my PhD? Who's next?!?
 

Fox Mulder

Member
This happens everywhere. At least anywhere that has a competitive D1 program. UNC just got caught, that's all. Scandal? I'm not sure. Maybe this will get people to open their eyes to what really goes on. Athletes are recruited to make the schools money, not to get an education. Just call them what they are, farm leagues. Pay the players and give them the option of pursuing an education if they feel like it. The charade has gone on long enough. PEACE.

It even happened for players at my mediocre 1AA school.
 

alstein

Member
Huge duke fan... But this is just plain bad for everyone on NCAA ball. Duke , and the acc for that matter. needs unc to be good... We need a rival

Might be State again with the way they're going, though I think they're do thin to really be a contender this year- losing Painter will hurt them more than people think.
 

daycru

Member
This one is real easy. Listen to interviews with NFL players. How many come across as college graduates? Drop the charade.
 

truly101

I got grudge sucked!
When you compare these violations to the ones Cal Tech got hit with and Cal Tech, one of the best academic institutions got hit with LOIC, its laughable. Obviously not a UNC fan and living in NC has made me loathe their hypocritical fanbase as a collective. That said if there is something there, I hope it doesn't touch Dean Smith. The guy is a class act and on top of which, he's in no condition to withstand such allegations.

I doubt anything will happen. The Swoff will bail out his alma mater and the NCAA will never do anything to damage one of their most popular brands.

EDIT: It should be noted that nobody in the NC media wants to touch this story. Most of them are graduates of the UNC Journalism school and they have a shitload of powerful alumni in the state. A Duke grad/student/fan could never pull this off, they have no power in NC. NCSU is a different matter and they haven't forgotten how they were treated by the state media during Valvano's scandal.

Note to self: Don't piss off NCSU.
 

DY_nasty

NeoGAF's official "was this shooting justified" consultant
There's nothing I hate more than classy Duke fans. This board is full of them. Ugh.
 

SyNapSe

Member
And needing to cheat to get a 1.82?

There was a big expose on Dasmine Cathey and the Memphis program earlier this year. The problem isn't just the NCAA. The kids get pushed through high school for the same reasons.

Here is the university setting up a program to try and get a kickstart for new students they identified might have a problem academically but as you can see the gap is quite large..

Two years ago, the (Memphis) athletic department started a summertime “bridge” program for transfer students and first-year athletes with academic deficiencies. Of the 50 players who have come through the program, nearly half tested at or below a seventh-grade reading level.

Here's some of Dasmine Catheys work.

Most semesters he takes a potpourri of courses, hardly building toward any specialization. This year he is enrolled in “Area/Facility Planning” through the School of Leisure Studies, and an online family-communication course. He has also taken “Wellness Concepts,” “Introduction to Dance,” and a class called “The Developing Adult” (which he failed­—twice).

For a developmental-writing class his first year, he submitted a two-page paper, titled “Some Important Womens,” in which he was asked to describe common issues or challenges facing characters in several books.

“Fannie Hou Hammer, Irma Muller and Aurthor Mayo-Raggie are important people with struggles, detonations, and failure that surround their environment,” he wrote in his introductory paragraph. “Then I give you my points on, ‘what I thinks the point that I thought it was making?”

For one assignment, he had to look at the covers of 10 magazines he had never read and describe their target markets. “Ladies if you looking for a maganize thats is tagering just you and all about you. Then this one is for you,” he said about Woman’s World. “Telling the ladies how to eat. What diet to be no for your body, and more.”

In addition to the grammatical problems, he misspelled “magazine” 13 times, but the professor didn’t mark him down for it. In fact, she praised him for his conversational style.

The kid has a pretty amazing story. The failure here is largely by the earlier education system. I'm not sure how much you could do with that in 3-4 years at the collegiate level. You'd probably be doing great work to just get the athlete to a position where they could pass high school comfortably.

Some of these kids will never pass for Rhodes scholars but they are probably better off for going to college.
 

alstein

Member
When you compare these violations to the ones Cal Tech got hit with and Cal Tech, one of the best academic institutions got hit with LOIC, its laughable. Obviously not a UNC fan and living in NC has made me loathe their hypocritical fanbase as a collective. That said if there is something there, I hope it doesn't touch Dean Smith. The guy is a class act and on top of which, he's in no condition to withstand such allegations.

I doubt anything will happen. The Swoff will bail out his alma mater and the NCAA will never do anything to damage one of their most popular brands.

EDIT: It should be noted that nobody in the NC media wants to touch this story. Most of them are graduates of the UNC Journalism school and they have a shitload of powerful alumni in the state. A Duke grad/student/fan could never pull this off, they have no power in NC. NCSU is a different matter and they haven't forgotten how they were treated by the state media during Valvano's scandal.

Note to self: Don't piss off NCSU.

State fans respect Duke, don't like em much, but they do respect them- especially the ones that show up to football games. UNC fans- it's nasty- not Kansas-Missouri nasty, but pretty damn close.

State fans have been the ones largely digging up the truth on this issue- many of them don't trust the mainstream media in North Carolina- so they've learned how to do it themselves. They're also still mad salty over 1989- when their basketball program got ruined hard for stuff that was only 10% as bad as what is going on now. Clemson fans are mad salty over stuff that happened in the 80s as well.

Those two schools along with VT are the most likely to bolt.
 

truly101

I got grudge sucked!
There's also another sticky issue for basketball and that's Wayne Weldon (I think thats his name). He was the academic overseer for the players and Roy Williams called him the most important guy on his staff (he followed Roy from KU). All of this is circumstancial, but in the middle of the decade, between 04 and 09, there were a number of players that either majored in or to classes in the African Studies program. Once the football story started to break, Weldon was transferred off the basketball team and then onto the swim team in 2010. He left the school the following year.

Given how important Roy said he was to his program, that sequence of events looks a little shady, especially now.

I have no insider info, only relaying whats been told to me, so I could have a lot wrong up there.
 

truly101

I got grudge sucked!
No you don't. We have no rivals in the SEC and were doin just fine in bball

How bout, we'd rather have a rival that isn't Maryland. At least I can go to Duke games at Chapel Hill and not be called a faggot or have shit thrown at me.
 

derder

Member
Well I went to NCSU and we had the same shit.

My roommate took a class that all of the athletes took for an easy A. Before the midterm exam, he got a copy of the "study guide" given to athletes by the tutors there. It turned out to be the exact same questions on the tests, just without the answers.

Also, my ex went to Duke and took the lowest level programming class offered. It was full of athletes and it was basically middle-school level programming. Easiest A she ever got.
 

truly101

I got grudge sucked!
Well I went to NCSU and we had the same shit.

My roommate took a class that all of the athletes took for an easy A. Before the midterm exam, he got a copy of the "study guide" given to athletes by the tutors there. It turned out to be the exact same questions on the tests, just without the answers.

Also, my ex went to Duke and took the lowest level programming class offered. It was full of athletes and it was basically middle-school level programming. Easiest A she ever got.

Not quite the same. If you were at risk for flunking out of NCSU and they made up a class for you to attend, but you didn't have to actually go, do any work and you got the grade you needed to maintain your eligibility well...

I couldn't care less if the UNC basketball players all took history of Transformers generation 1, if they showed up and did the work to at least earn the easy A, there is no problem here. Hell, I looked for the easiest classes I could to fulfill those bullshit elective requirements I needed to graduate. But nobody had to make up a class form me and give me a fake grade to graduate.
 

derder

Member
Not quite the same. If you were at risk for flunking out of NCSU and they made up a class for you to attend, but you didn't have to actually go, do any work and you got the grade you needed to maintain your eligibility well...

I couldn't care less if the UNC basketball players all took history of Transformers generation 1, if they showed up and did the work to at least earn the easy A, there is no problem here. Hell, I looked for the easiest classes I could to fulfill those bullshit elective requirements I needed to graduate. But nobody had to make up a class form me and give me a fake grade to graduate.

true, true
 

entremet

Member
This happens everywhere. At least anywhere that has a competitive D1 program. UNC just got caught, that's all. Scandal? I'm not sure. Maybe this will get people to open their eyes to what really goes on. Athletes are recruited to make the schools money, not to get an education. Just call them what they are, farm leagues. Pay the players and give them the option of pursuing an education if they feel like it. The charade has gone on long enough. PEACE.

Yep.
 

george_us

Member
Gotta love athletes who aren't really there to learn taking spots from people who do. While there are a host of athletes who do actually give a fuck about their college education it's kind of bullshit that there are ones who don't and get fixed grades on a scholarship. The whole athletics issue in college is just gross.
Blame that on the NCAA forcing big time college athletes to go to school instead of being able to jump straight into professional sports.
 

truly101

I got grudge sucked!
Blame that on the NCAA forcing big time college athletes to go to school instead of being able to jump straight into professional sports.

I'm naive but I'd love to see division 1 schools who compete in high level athletics develop an actual major that educates these kids in shit they actually need to know. The universities as a whole only care that these kids either maintain a GPA to keep them out of trouble or if they cheat, they don't get caught. How about honestly teaching them how to read at an appropriate level, teaching them how to manage money, how to relate to the media, understand basics of business, investments and brand management. I honestly think you could create a useful curriculum for today's athlete but the athletics dept doesn't care and the academic dept doesn't really want them there. Regardless of what UNC or anyone else is guilty of, its bullshit.
 
Yeah, "awarded a degree for doing nothing" is a little different from "taking really easy classes". An ordinary student can take stupid easy classes and get a degree (they have to pay for it and waste their money but hey), but an ordinary student doesn't get a degree just for successfully breathing for 4 years.

Of course, this is Carolina, a sacred cow. The NCAA will penalize the football program and pretend it didn't impact basketball, and hit UNC-Wilmington with triple secret probation.

Strip them of their 04-05 national title and give it to Illinois!
Hell yeah!
Oh hell yes! Should've been ours anyways, Sean May got Shaq like calls.
l56vs.gif


Apparently 7 or 8 of Carolina's '05 team majored in African and Afro-American Studies, the department in question.

READY THE BANNER
 
Whats really sad is that the NCAA had investigated UNC prior to this for academic fraud. So either their investigators need to find new careers, or they did find this out and because its UNC gave them a pass.

Oh hell yes! Should've been ours anyways, Sean May got Shaq like calls.

Fuck that guy. Hope he's flippin' burgers somewhere now.

As an Illini fan I am more than happy to welcome our new 2004-5 asterisked National Championship. Can't wait to raise the banner! *high fives all around*
 
Anyone recall that quote from a former player at the NBA Combine.

Scout. "We hear you like to smoke, drink and you burn bridges."

Player: "Yeah I drink and I smoke, but who ever told you I burned a bridge is a fucking liar."
 

george_us

Member
I'm naive but I'd love to see division 1 schools who compete in high level athletics develop an actual major that educates these kids in shit they actually need to know. The universities as a whole only care that these kids either maintain a GPA to keep them out of trouble or if they cheat, they don't get caught. How about honestly teaching them how to read at an appropriate level, teaching them how to manage money, how to relate to the media, understand basics of business, investments and brand management. I honestly think you could create a useful curriculum for today's athlete but the athletics dept doesn't care and the academic dept doesn't really want them there. Regardless of what UNC or anyone else is guilty of, its bullshit.
That's actually a pretty good idea.

I think athletes should be allowed to take whatever they want from whomever they want as long as it's not coming directly from the schools themselves as well as receive endorsements. Let the free market decide how much these athletes are worth. A free ride to college is chump change compared to the billions some of these athletes help bring in.
 

numble

Member
Gotta love athletes who aren't really there to learn taking spots from people who do. While there are a host of athletes who do actually give a fuck about their college education it's kind of bullshit that there are ones who don't and get fixed grades on a scholarship. The whole athletics issue in college is just gross.

Honestly, from the amount of money these free athletes make for their schools, having them there to subsidize the budget probably allows for more seats to be available.
 

linko9

Member
Weird article, this "scandal" has been known about for years, and is brought up from time to time. Investigations have taken place, and it's been determined that there's no wrongdoing. Easy classes exist. The tone of this article is pretty hilarious. "Maybe the ugliest academic scandal in NCAA history. "

Lol, dream on buddy. I don't expect anything to come of this. Full disclosure: I'm a huge UNC fan.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom