The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the NCAA on Friday delayed the publication of an infraction report, the result of an extensive investigation into academic fraud within athletic programs at the flagship university.
The university explained in a statement that the announcement of the decision from the NCAA Committee on Infractions was delayed due to a scheduling conflict at UNC.
The news of the forthcoming announcement was first reported by a local North Carolina newspaper, The News & Observer, on Thursday. The delay was announced only hours later. Although the postponement may heighten the anticipation for some, experts in the field of college athletics expect the content of the announcement, including any penalties or fines, to be symbolic and inconsequential. With the recent bribery scandals surrounding the NCAA, experts say that the UNC case is just another reminder of the deep-seated, systemic problems in collegiate sports.
For over two years, the NCAA has been investigating the fraudulent courses offered to student athletes to keep their GPAs above the minimum requirement. For 18 years, over 200 Africana Studies courses that rarely met and had nearly no assignments fluffed the transcripts of athletes.
“I believe they got a second-class education at best. That is reprehensible,” said Dr. Gerald Gurney, an assistant professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Oklahoma. “Academic integrity is at the heart of higher education. Without academic integrity, we have nothing.”
Scholars like Gurney argue that the university has essentially failed to reconcile the dual roles of student athletes.
“The whole system is based on a lie,” said Dr. John Gerdy, a visiting professor of Sports Administration at College Sport Research Institute, or CSRI, at the University of South Carolina. “And that lie is that these are real students, students first and athletes second.”
