Satisfying, but ex post facto is the most egregious part of our punishment and always was. They enacted a rule that made it impossible for us to comply. It should be the first thing mentioned every time our punishment comes up, long before you get into how dumb the APR is to begin with.
I agree. Equally egregious was that the APR punished the schools who chose not to game the system and give a free pass to those who were. It was flawed from the beginning because universities were self reporting and the less scrupulous were going to game the system.. I argued this point when the APR was first presented. Without outside verification there was no way of knowing what kids were doing in a classroom.
@upstater made a valid argument at the time. That is the NCAA should not be in the business to set university academic standards. It's a slippery slope. But the counter argument to this is that universities will exploit these athletes if there isn't any independent review system going on. This North Carolina scandal does not surprise me in the least. I was waiting for something to expose the hypocrisy of the APR. But if anyone thinks this is an isolated case they are fooling themselves.
UConn insisted on students taking on a caseload that was similar to non athletes. That was, in its own way, unfair. The demands on athletes puts them in an unfair advantage with their peers. Certainly there is a percentage of bright student athletes that can accomplish this but some, if not many, of the kids in high profile sports are unlikely to meet these rigors. So the universities need to alter the caseload, not the standards, to accommodate the athletes rigorous schedules.
What I'm going to write now is totally editorial. IMO, this is the big story JJ missed because of his vendetta with JC. I strongly believe, just a hypothesis, that both JC and RE had gone to JH many times asking for support in getting the academic side to accommodate the athletes with their case loads. They weren't asking to cheat, they were asking for flexibility. It is my opinion that JH has a personality flaw of his own. I picture him being bullied as a kid, and strong male figures are perceived as a threat to him. Sometimes those of us bullied end up becoming bullies. In JH's case, he was able to refuse to help RE and JC with their requests. He was sabotaging them. And in JC's case JH said and did things to undermine JC. He made the statement to the NCAA that he never saw JC work harder for a recruit. Most of us would see through that because there was no way JH would have any real knowledge of JC's recruiting activity.
It becomes JH's word vs. JC's word whether JC approached the AD regarding Nate Miles. The presumption is that JH was the honorable person in this situation. I disagree. The smoking gun for me is that JH eliminated the compliance department. No one has questioned the rational for this. No one has weighed the importance of this action in the Nate Miles problem. Furthermore, most of us know that Nochimson cheated Rip Hamilton at the same time all of this started. From the way I perceive JC I doubt he would continue to associate with Nochimson after learning of this. Yet many of the condemning events that the NCAA gathered, with the aid of Hathaway, against JC and the bb program took place after this cheating of Rip.
The story, if JJ can get over his bitterness with Calhoun, is Hathaway. There is a reason he wanted the independent report to be sealed. There is a reason he chose not to challenge the report and announced he was leaving the day after the report was presented. People challenge reports when incompetence is the primary focus. Incompetence is difficult to prove.
