"While student athletes likely benefited from the courses"... isn't that still a violation?
By framing UNCs issue as a "benefits issue" rather than "an ineligible player issue" The NCAA gave itself wiggle room not to punish North Carolina. The unescapable truth is that UNC used academic fraud to allow ineligible players to play. The penalty for that is forfeiture of games. The NCAA's decision today ratifies cheating and academic fraud while sanctioning those who accurately report the grades of their student athletes.
We really need one of the horde to step up and lead the charge on this. I could pretty much guarantee that if someone calls this out for what it is, as stated above, they are going to receive national media coverage. This is particularly true if you look at the whole history of the matter where the NCAA originally sent in North Carolina alum to do it to review and then after media scrutiny shed light on that we started a new review while continuing to let North Carolina compete. It is clear that there are two sets of rules for NCAA. For the powerful athletic institutions compliance with NCAA rules are optional in to no one surprise these institutions opt to ignore them.
Given the current FBI scrutiny of college athletics this is the kind of story that will explode nationally and it is certainly within Jeff Jacobs wheelhouse to be able to write it in write it well. I hope he picks it up.