There are a lot of UNC haters out there.........doesn't make the guy's opinion any less valuable.........as a former newspaper reporter myself, I try to keep an open mind as much as I can............except whe it comes to UConn WBB I suppose........
Here's a quick rundown of Mr Bethel's beliefs on the UNC scandal.......I think he let's the UNC Athletic Dept off easy on this but his basic premise is plausable:
To summarize this: The AFAM paper-class scandal was not an athletics-driven scandal. It was the result of a department chair's and his assistant's misguided efforts to help struggling students, and it was allowed to persist because of the deans' negligence. The academic counselors for athletes learned about the paper classes but had assurance from multiple deans that the department chair had the autonomy to conduct the classes in whatever manner he chose. Yet the counselors have received considerable blame, being scapegoated to protect the deans. Nyang'oro and Crowder were able to conduct some form of the paper-classes for nearly two decades without any deans addressing their substandard quality. Accordingly, this scandal should have demonstrated the neglect prestigious research universities show toward teaching undergraduates. However, the media saw a sexier story in an athletics scandal, and the University was content to allow that narrative to develop. As a result, good people have been hurt. Fortunately, most of those good people have been able to move on. That's what I hope to do, too.