Somewhere behind the headline of Tar Heels leading scorer P.J. Hairston getting arrested for weed possession and the convicted felon whose name the vehicle was rented to, there's this disturbing story of academic dishonesty at the University of North Carolina that reaches beyond the usual cheating that students do.
A university official is being accused of providing a bogus African-American Studies course to help athletes remain eligibile to play. A faculty chairman requested that the investigation into allegations of academic fraud edit a sentence in its report to "minimize the chances of the NCAA looking into the situation" as it pertains to the athletic department.
So, wait… we have concerns of fraud involving student-athletes and the university doesn't want to tell the NCAA? That's shady, but ironic at the same time.
It's shady because it almost admits to some type of guilt. It's ironic that a fraud suspect is trying to get away from the NCAA, which stands on the fraudulent notion of amateurism. This actually the kind of stuff it should obviously take a stand on, though.
But no, we're going to spend our time getting down to the bottom of how P.J. Hairston gets into a rental car.
