UNC responded to the NCAA allegations of academic impropriety by telling the NCAA to fuck off. Basically stating that if UNC wants to offer sham classes to their students, they have every right to. Just as long as they are available to all students.

http://deadspin.com/unc-response-to-nca ... 1784719614

In essence, it doesn't matter if a UNC diploma is a sham, just as long as every student has the opportunity to earn the sham diploma.

Good for them.

Not really. People would be furious at the NCAA if they were making the same arguments.

This would set a race to the bottom where literally every school would have to basically remove the school requirement from college athletics. That's fine for the small subsection of athletes that are looking to become professional football and basketball players. It sucks for the rest of them that won't be and could actually use even a basic education.

People still mention that guy that graduated from Miami that couldn't read(Michael Irvin). This is UNC basically saying "Yeah, let's do more of that".

Not really. People would be furious at the NCAA if they were making the same arguments.

This would set a race to the bottom where literally every school would have to basically remove the school requirement from college athletics. That's fine for the small subsection of athletes that are looking to become professional football and basketball players. It sucks for the rest of them that won't be and could actually use even a basic education.

People still mention that guy that graduated from Miami that couldn't read(Michael Irvin). This is UNC basically saying "Yeah, let's do more of that".

They told them "Stick to sports" and that this isn't in their jurisdiction.

They're right.

your move, SACSCOC.

Just imagine a world where there was no student requirements for college athletes. That would be fine for the small group of athletes that are going to do very well in pro sports.

There are really three classes of athletes in college sports.
1) The sure fire future pro athletes. They don't really have a need to attend classes or learn anything though obviously it is never a bad thing to learn things. This is a very small percentage of NCAA athletes though. There were 20 NCAA players drafted in the first round of the NBA draft. That means there is roughly one player for every 3 power conference teams and the numbers are much higher if you include all of the basketball teams. Of course second rounders and undrafted free agents can and do make it and there is always Europe but no matter how you slice it there are very few players who can live off basketball the rest of their lives. The same is true for football though the numbers are different and so are the numbers of players who will make it.
2) The pro potential players(including Europe for basketball). This number is larger. You can look at most big schools and see some players who have this ability. However, the ability to support yourself professionally in basketball is far from guaranteed. All of these athletes could benefit from an education.
3) Everyone else. This is the huge majority of college players. These are also the ones who benefit the most from college athletics.

Now, the question is "Why not let them choose to not do anything worthwhile and if they want to have a high school level education after college why not let them?". The answer is simple. It would create a race to the bottom. If the athletes at UNC can do whatever they want and spend their time worrying about basketball and basketball alone then every other school that UNC competes with has to create an environment for the same thing. This means that athletes who also want to have something valuable at the end of four years lose that opportunity just because a small group doesn't need it. It would be like if there was a person in a college class who had a millionaire dad who was going to hand him over control of the company. They wouldn't make the class easy and meaningless just because one person in it really doesn't need it.

The NCAA has a lot of flaws but requiring and forcing schools to actually provide even a basic education for the athletes is not one of them. If anything, they don't go far enough for advocating for the actual schooling of the students.

I don't care what kind of education these people get. They are animals who perform for my amusement.

And UNC Wins!