Ostensibly Hoops

[hedge]

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The NCAA acknowledged in procedural documents released publicly on Tuesday that determining the legitimacy of the University of North Carolina’s irregular AFAM courses is beyond its jurisdictional scope and that its allegations against the institution are focused on the arrangements that were afforded to student-athletes with regard to those courses.

The enforcement staff’s written reply, which was delivered to the Committee on Infractions hearing panel 60 days after UNC’s response to its third notice of allegations, lays out the NCAA’s argument ahead of next month’s COI hearing. The document indicates the enforcement staff’s allegations are based on a “straightforward application” of the facts of the case as it relates to the bylaws in place, not to the quality of the AFAM courses in question.

“It is equally important to be clear what this case is not about,” the enforcement staff wrote. "This case is not about so-called fake classes or easy courses. The institution acknowledges that although the courses at issue did not meet its expectations for academic rigor, the institution did not deem the courses to be fraudulent. Nor is this case about NCAA review of classroom curriculum. The institution continues to argue that the NCAA enforcement staff should not judge academic rigor or revisit classroom decisions. The enforcement staff continues to agree and feels strongly that those considerations are reserved to the sound discretion of individual schools and their accrediting agencies. Nothing in this case suggests otherwise.”

Attempting to penalize UNC on the legitimacy of the AFAM courses appeared to be a losing argument from the beginning, especially given the NCAA’s stance in court that it has never regulated the content of college courses and that it does not assume a duty to ensure the quality of education received by student-athletes at member institutions. That stance played a significant role in a federal judge dismissing the NCAA as a defendant in the class-action lawsuit filed by former UNC student-athletes Rashanda McCants and Devon Ramsay in 2015.

By shifting its approach to the access and assistance provided for the irregular courses, the NCAA maintains its ability to allege impermissible benefits and a lack of institutional control without having to prove academic fraud.

In Allegation 1b, the NCAA enforcement staff states that “while general students had to work directly with [Deborah] Crowder or [Julius] Nyang’oro to access and complete the anomalous courses, the institution and its athletic department provided student-athletes with special arrangements that were not generally available to the student body.”

UNC countered that charge in its NOA response by providing multiple emails of campus academic counselors contacting Crowder or Nyang’oro for similar arrangements for non-athletes. One such email consisted of Alice Dawson, the Senior Assistant Dean of the Academic Advising Program, asking an AFAM staff member about enrolling a student into an independent study course two weeks after the final day of registration.

The NCAA contends such emails fail to help UNC, referencing the proportions in play between the number of student-athletes and general population. While the enforcement staff agrees “that proportionality of student-athlete enrollment is not an NCAA violation,” it maintains the high student-athlete enrollment is “a clear manifestation and illustration of the extra benefit of preferential access.”

The special arrangements cited in Allegation 1b included “athletics personnel” contacting the AFAM department to register student-athletes for classes, sometimes after the enrollment deadline had passed, obtaining assignments for the student-athletes, suggesting assignments as well as submitting assignments for the student-athletes.

The “athletics personnel” the NCAA references were actually ASPSA academic counselors, who were not employed by the athletic department but rather the University’s College of Arts & Sciences.

UNC believes the aforementioned special arrangements fall under Bylaw 16.3, which makes academic and other support services mandatory. Bylaw 16.3.1.1 reads: “Member institutions shall make general academic counseling and tutoring services available to all student-athletes. Such counseling and tutoring services may be provided by the department of athletics or the institution’s nonathletics student support services.”

UNC is not alone in its bylaw interpretation. In July 2015, Brad Hostetter, the ACC’s senior associate commissioner and chief of internal affairs, provided a bylaw interpretation at UNC’s request. The memo shared the ACC compliance staff’s opinion that it was permissible under Bylaw 16.3 for athletics academic counselors to contact academic department staff members regarding each of the following: to check the availability of courses; to request that courses be offered; to register student-athletes; to request and obtain student-athletes’ assignments; and to submit or otherwise “turn in” student-athletes’ assignments.

If that manner of academic support is permitted under NCAA bylaws, it cannot be deemed an extra benefit under Bylaw 16.11.2.1, which defines extra benefits as benefits “not expressly authorized by NCAA legislation.”

The NCAA, however, disagrees with the interpretations of both UNC and the ACC. The document suggests the academic support permitted by Bylaw 16.3.1.1 is not unlimited and does not include “access to and assistance in” courses such as the irregular AFAM classes.

“Put simply, student-athletes received access to and assistance in certain courses that was not generally available to other students,” the written reply reads. “The arrangements violated familiar NCAA bylaws and operated to the competitive disadvantage of other schools.”

Regarding Allegation 1b, the NCAA’s written reply states that obtaining assignments and turning in papers on behalf of student-athletes is not permitted, as those “are basic educational tasks all students are expected to perform, yet numerous student-athletes at the institution were relieved of these obligations while administrators performed them instead.”

The NCAA further condemned what it viewed as recommended grade suggestions for student-athletes and also criticized the actions of athletics academic counselors who “used these courses to help maintain NCAA eligibility for student-athletes who were at risk academically.”

The COI hearing is scheduled for Aug. 16-17 in Nashville, Tenn. UNC basketball coach Roy Williams, football coach Larry Fedora and women's basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell will join athletic director Bubba Cunningham and other school officials at the hearing. The NCAA typically delivers its infractions report and announces any potential penalties 8-12 weeks after the hearing.

[Jungle Rat]

Who the fuck is gonna read all that?

[eCat]

makes sense for them to go that route - they don't want to get into determining what is a valid curriculum for a member school

there is more than enough ammo there to hammer UNC for impermissible benefits to the extent they levied against UL

lets take a moment and look at what the NCAA has issued as a rebuttal to the horseshit coming from UNC

"The issues at the heart of this case are clearly the NCAA’s business. When a member institution allows an academic department to provide benefits to student-athletes that are materially different from the general student body, it is the NCAA’s business. When athletics academic counselors exploit “special arrangement” classes for student-athletes in ways unintended by and contrary to the bylaws, it is the NCAA’s business. When a member institution provides student athletes an inside track to enroll in unpublicized courses where grades of As and Bs are the norm, it is the NCAA’s business. When a member institution uses “special arrangement” courses to keep a significant number of student-athletes eligible, it is the NCAA’s business. When a member institution fails or refuses to take action after receiving actual notice of problems involving student—athletes, thereby allowing violations to compound and to continue for years, it is the NCAA’s business."

-------------------

they go on to say that the only way North Carolina can support its current position is to ignore and reject documented evidence provided by its own representatives.......

that sounds like an organization that not only believes UNC cheated, but is pissed about it.

I especially like that they used the term "keep a significant number of student-athletes eligible" - because there is no ambiguity about the punishment if its determined ineligible athletes played.

I'd say its the NCAA's business and thanks to North Carolina, business is good..........

[hedge]

"When a member institution allows an academic department to provide benefits to student-athletes that are materially different from the general student body, it is the NCAA’s business."

You mean like the dozens of schools that offer multiple hours of academic credit simply for playing on the team, that is obviously only available to athletes? Or weightlifting and conditioning? And all of it overseen and "graded" (LOL) by athletic staff?

[eCat]

"When a member institution allows an academic department to provide benefits to student-athletes that are materially different from the general student body, it is the NCAA’s business."

You mean like the dozens of schools that offer multiple hours of academic credit simply for playing on the team, that is obviously only available to athletes? Or weightlifting and conditioning? And all of it overseen and "graded" (LOL) by athletic staff?

yea - I'm sure that's what they mean , or the chemistry professor that offers extra credit for anyone doing lab testing. That's clearly unfair because its only available to chemistry students. You've found the whole big enough to drive a truck thru on this case!

[hedge]

Anybody can enroll in a chemistry class...

[eCat]

The University of Georgia suspended its men's basketball coach, Jim Harrick, and withdrew his team from the Southeastern Conference tournament and the N.C.A.A. tournament yesterday after an internal investigation showed that three players had received fraudulent grades in a class taught by his son.

No. 21 Georgia (19-8) suspended Harrick with pay and declared two starters academically ineligible after university officials discovered evidence that the players, Chris Daniels and Rashad Wright, did not regularly attend a class in which they both received A's. Jim Harrick Jr., who was suspended without pay 10 days ago, taught the class, ''Coaching Principles and Strategies of Basketball.'' All 31 students in the class received A's; 10 of them were athletes.

[eCat]

probably pouring it on thick for the home town crowd but still....


the next-best thing? 15-year NBA veteran and former Cincinnati Bearcat Kenyon Martin.

Martin quickly became one of the stars of the BIG 3 events with his fiery personality and defensive presence in the paint. The 39-year-old only finished with four points, two blocks, and a rebound in his team’s victory at Rupp Arena today, but his comments following the game may force UK fans to wonder what could have been.

“As a kid, you idolize Kentucky basketball,” Martin said. “Rick Pitino was an iconic figure here, that’s who I wanted to play for then. He left and went to the Celtics, and then they brought in Tubby, so I decided to go to the University of Cincinnati. It’s one of those things where if you didn’t grow up liking Kentucky basketball, you weren’t a basketball fan.”

[eCat]

so I've been to my 4th college visit this past weekend.

I think I've cracked the code on college expenses.

If I charge 50K a semester for tuition, room and board, whats the difference than it being $15K a semester?

The difference is I can publicize some bullshit about us meeting 100% of the "need" based expenses for a student. Meaning that I can say I'm covering $35K of the cost while your family only has to pay $15K a year in cost.

Now the family feels like the college is throwing some shit at you to make you feel special and they are doing all they can to cover costs - and they can be generous - giving this need based money to as high as families that make $150K a year.

The flipside? The families that make more than $150K a year that decide to send their kid to this school? They are paying the $50K a year out of pocket (or some pro rated amount) - so its all funny money.

Is the real cost to the college really $50K or is it close to $15K and they believe that some level of prestige and captive audience makes kids line up to attend the school - and in order to perpetuate the idea they are prestigious they have this upsizing money scheme in place?


Second thing I've learned - and this is minor but every college has some Harry Potter bullshit thing going on with housing now. The kid are placed in a "house" and the house has some bullshit competition between the other houses, and they have names like Northside and Wellsworth, so these kids think they are all going to be walking around wearing robes and playing quiddich . One school we went to had the flags for each house on display in the dining hall, another had separate areas of the dining hall for each house, one even had faculty living on site in the dorm to act as stand in parents.

Finally, the last thing I've learned is every kid wants to study abroad for some period of time and these schools now have tailored their financial aid packages and curriculum to support these kids going to some part of the world to study for a year without loss of credit or finances.

When I was in college it was called the peace corp

[aTm]

Isnt the Harry Potter house stuff just normal stuff that every school has? At A&M they werent houses but they were called dorms. Each hall had intramural teams and all kinds of stuff like that. Each dorm even had the equivalent of house words with a dorm yell. There was also a separate rivalry between dorms on the northside of campus and on the southside. It was all pretty decidedly not harry potter-ish though. Examples below...

Hotard Hall, we may be small, but we got dicks that are Bonfire tall!

Northside close-knit.
Southside, eat shit

[eCat]

Isnt the Harry Potter house stuff just normal stuff that every school has? At A&M they werent houses but they were called dorms. Each hall had intramural teams and all kinds of stuff like that. Each dorm even had the equivalent of house words with a dorm yell. There was also a separate rivalry between dorms on the northside of campus and on the southside. It was all pretty decidedly not harry potter-ish though. Examples below...

Hotard Hall, we may be small, but we got dicks that are Bonfire tall!

Northside close-knit.
Southside, eat shit

well maybe - seems to me they are really playing it up though - 3 of the 4 visits have made Harry Potter references during the housing pitch

It worked for my daughter, her current first choice was made primarily because of the housing pitch they made.

Also, she thinks I'd be in HufflePuff so she can kiss my butt

[eCat]

the daughter is at a Common App boot camp this week

We're still trying to decide on which colleges we're going to go early action, early decisions, etc., with but we're going to apply to maybe 10 - 12 when all is said and done

[Cletus]

Applying to colleges sucked. I'm sure it's no picnic now but 25 years ago the process had so much friction - write a letter to each school for an application, a different app for every school, paper files everywhere to keep track of all the shit, and no online application so you had to either fill it out extremely neatly by hand or stick it in a typewriter (and don't make any mistakes since you only have 1 or 2 copies to use). I applied to 10 schools which, in retrospect, was completely insane.

[eCat]

Applying to colleges sucked. I'm sure it's no picnic now but 25 years ago the process had so much friction - write a letter to each school for an application, a different app for every school, paper files everywhere to keep track of all the shit, and no online application so you had to either fill it out extremely neatly by hand or stick it in a typewriter (and don't make any mistakes since you only have 1 or 2 copies to use). I applied to 10 schools which, in retrospect, was completely insane.

yea in some ways it was much harder, in some ways it was easier.

I feel bad because I really didn't understand how complex or competitive it was when my son was applying to college.

I wrongly assumed that at a state school, if your ACT score was good enough, then you got in, so he had a pretty good ACT score, 4 or 5 points above their average so I left it up to him to write an essay and fill out the paperwork while I did the FAFSA. He got rejected to his first choice which sucked. Luckily it wasn't too big of a deal because he friends scattered all over the place and he just wanted to stay local but I let him down by not helping him prepare. Of course he skipped everything the school offered and I never knew about it - like the Common App boot camp this week.

Now my daughter has to write 3 essays, has to get two recommendation letters and one from her guidance counselor, and then has to provide the supplemental stuff like additional essays. Saturday's visit we were told the supplemental essay last year was to write about oversize mustard sold at Costco.

not kidding.

[Cletus]

We had to do all the essays and letters as well. Other than maybe Illinois, I bet I averaged about 4-5 essays per application and, other than the general personal statement, they were all different. Illinois was the only easy one. It was only one essay and it had a chart that showed, based on ACT score and class rank, if you would get accepted early so I knew before I even started that I was in. All the others, including other state schools, were a massive pain in the ass. I can tell it was an all consuming process because I have so many vivid memories this many years later.

[eCat]

We had to do all the essays and letters as well. Other than maybe Illinois, I bet I averaged about 4-5 essays per application and, other than the general personal statement, they were all different. Illinois was the only easy one. It was only one essay and it had a chart that showed, based on ACT score and class rank, if you would get accepted early so I knew before I even started that I was in. All the others, including other state schools, were a massive pain in the ass. I can tell it was an all consuming process because I have so many vivid memories this many years later.

yea, I've been on my daughter to start the essays early because I want all this behind us by mid November. Supposedly by the end of this boot camp, she will have everything done besides the essays and any additional supplemental work done. If she doesn't get the school she wants by early December, we're going to shotgun state schools that are pushing STEM in the hopes she lands a scholarship for being female.
For example, a few SEC schools are really pushing to expand their engineering schools and are being fairly generous to strong STEM candidates who may want to go there if the financial package is an incentive.

[hedge]

" but I let him down"

Story of the poor kid's life...

[aTm]

By the time I applied, every public school in Texas had a common application. So you could basically apply to Texas, A&M, Tech, every other state school with one application, submit the same essays etc. I knew where I was going and was an automatic admit, so I didn't really try out to see what out of state or private school application was like. Most of the heartache with college admissions was dealing with the federal government on getting the money, plus trying to get a bunch of other random scholarships. Far more work for me went into trying to get $1,000 here or $4,000 there. And as far as everyone wants to make it a race thing, the thing that seemed really brutal to me back then was how advantageous it was for your parents to be divorced (and I'm not talking people with genuine hardships trying to make it by with a lower class single parent, but it was an extreme advantage for kids like where Dad is a lawyer or a doctor, bu the kid lives with a middle class income Mom, and Dad was going pay for college anyway. Those kids could get tens of thousands if they were moderately good students .)

[eCat]

" but I let him down"

Story of the poor kid's life...

yea, its not a good feeling

[eCat]

By the time I applied, every public school in Texas had a common application. So you could basically apply to Texas, A&M, Tech, every other state school with one application, submit the same essays etc. I knew where I was going and was an automatic admit, so I didn't really try out to see what out of state or private school application was like. Most of the heartache with college admissions was dealing with the federal government on getting the money, plus trying to get a bunch of other random scholarships. Far more work for me went into trying to get $1,000 here or $4,000 there. And as far as everyone wants to make it a race thing, the thing that seemed really brutal to me back then was how advantageous it was for your parents to be divorced (and I'm not talking people with genuine hardships trying to make it by with a lower class single parent, but it was an extreme advantage for kids like where Dad is a lawyer or a doctor, bu the kid lives with a middle class income Mom, and Dad was going pay for college anyway. Those kids could get tens of thousands if they were moderately good students .)

a friend of mine works in financial aid for a state school. I was talking to her about if there was an advantage if my wife and I were divorced and she told me with the fafsa you have to include both parents income so unless there was some crazy expenses assigned to each one that wouldn't be reflected if they were still married, there is no advantage. I've heard what you heard but she was adamant that wasn't true.

I don't know how serious we were about it, but we got to the point that we actually talked to a financial aid person on the sly to see if there was an advantage to being divorced. I'm not sure what would have happened had she told us our kid would get a free ride.

I'll say this - sending the boy to a moderately priced college I can pay for out of pocket (at the moment a least) really helps with the net price calculator and taxes.