Column: Final Four matchup as much about scandals as baskets
Coming to Houston this week with hopes of another national championship is North Carolina, a school embroiled in one of the biggest NCAA academic scandals ever for enrolling athletes in sham classes and having tutors write their papers to keep them eligible.
There are some people, cynical as they might be, who believe the university found a way to delay upcoming NCAA penalties because the Tar Heels were loaded with talent this year and had a good chance to make the Final Four.
The report cited academic misconduct, payment to athletes for "volunteer" work at a YMCA and violations of the university's drug-testing policy.
[...] Boeheim protested that the penalties were "unduly harsh," especially since Syracuse had already voluntarily imposed a one season postseason ban for the basketball program.
The Carolina coach will tell anyone who will listen that the basketball program is clean, and that most of the problems with the sham classes over a span of 18 years were with football and other athletic programs.
Left unsaid by Williams was that a university investigation showed 167 enrollments by basketball players into the African and Afro-American Studies program at the center of the scandal since he was named coach in 2003.
Former player Rashad McCants is on record saying he took a number of the classes in his three years at Chapel Hill, including four during the 2005 national championship season.