N.C.A.A. Questioned Its Authority in Penalizing Penn State
N.C.A.A. Decides to Roll Back Sanctions Against Penn State
They aren’t different PSU just allowed some before they fought back.
The NCAA admitted no legal ability to sanction UNC for their fake classes.
It seems to me there is a logical conclusion the NCAA COULD have come to regarding the UNC academic fraud that would have given them the authority to take away wins and championships as well as penalizing them with lost scholarships and anything else a reasonable person would have judged was warranted.
UNC admitted the classes were fraudulent. That would make the grades fraudulent which in turn means the "student athletes", who in many cases took multiple fake classes each semester, didn't take the minimum credits that semester or didn't have a high enough GPA and thus were ineligible.
But, when your TV contracts are negatively impacted by the lower ratings you'd have because the Duke/UNC games would have been banned for a year or more, you do what you have to do to keep the money flowing. The hell with honor and integrity.