An independent investigation into the academic scandal that has been swirling around the North Carolina athletics program over the course of the last three years was released on Wednesday afternoon.
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And while the mammoth, 136 page document —which can be read in their entirety right here — takes a deep look into the way that the so-called “paper classes” came to be, for our sake there are two key talking points that need to be addressed:
- The courses existed from 1993-2011, and roughly 3,100 of the 97,600 undergrads at UNC-Chapel Hill during that time took those classes. Athletes made up 47.6% of those 3,100 students, according to the investigation, and student-athletes were directed to those classes by members of the Academic Support Program. “Those counselors saw these paper classes as ‘GPA boosters’ and steered players into them largely in order to help them maintain their GPAs and their eligibility under the NCAA and Chapel Hill eligibility rules,” the report said.
- The report also found no evidence that current UNC head coach Roy Williams knew about the paper class scheme and how it was being used.
This is the third report that has come out on the scandal, but the results of this report are much more damning for UNC’s athletic department. Headed up by Kenneth Wainstein, a former member of the U.S. Justice Department and currently a lawyer in Washington D.C., this latest report specifically ties the Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes to the scandal.









