Memo to Carol Folt and Bubba Cunningham - CLEAN UP THE MESS!

Bloomberg's Business Week is out this week with a national rendition of the academic fraud scandal at UNC-CH. This is not good news for Carol Folt and the UNC-CH crowd. I take no pleasure in this misfortune at my adopted home state's major liberal arts university. As an employer I depend on the UNC system to educate the people I hire. I depend on the UNC system to provide education that is meaningful. As a parent, I expect I will depend on the UNC system to educate my children. That's my stake in this mess. Oh, and I'm a North Carolina taxpayer, that's a big stake in this mess.

Is Julius Nyang'oro the first and only jock sniffing prof to be employed at UNC? No. He's not the last either. But, there's a difference between trading an easy grade for sideline tickets (bad enough) and teaching  no-show classes. The vast majority of college athletes will not go professional. Most will get a job coaching at a high school or middle school level. A very few will get jobs in college coaching and fewer yet coaching at the professional level. Thus, it is vitally important that our college athletes get the education that is supposed to be the basis for the bargain. Deny them the education and we have denied them the sole compensation promised by the onerous contract they sign when they agree to play college sports.

If you are wondering how I think this might play out. Let an athlete who took one of Nyang'oro's no show courses file suit against the University of North Carolina for breech of contract. He alleges that UNC promised to give him an education in return for playing football. He alleges UNC failed to uphold its end of the contract, thus voiding contract all together. That entitles the football playing athlete to damages. What kind of damages? How about the value of his athletic efforts? Let's be conservative, say half the NFL minimum contract. About $1,000,000 for four years of academic fraud! The contract also calls for attorney fees. Under NC law, if one side of a contract is entitled to attorney fees, then the other side can get them if they prevail. OOPS! Athlete gets to play with house money.