I've read articles about the NOA. In fact, I've read the NOA. There is a ton of information, including content from numerous emails where athletes are specifically discussed. There are records of accommodations being made to allow athletes to get better grades. What UNC was doing was academically awful, and certainly has the appearance of being geared towards benefitting athletes the most. The NCAA has accused them of that (thus the Notice Of Accusations). Remember, accusations are not convictions. UNC officials have had and will have an opportunity to defend themselves. I'm just telling you, the whole argument is based on proving that the benefits were impermissible benefits (benefits not available to other students), and that's not as easy to prove when half the students in these "fraud" classes were not athletes. Do we know for sure that these classes didn't offer similar kinds of accommodations to traditional students who need to raise their grades? If similar accommodations were made for non-athletes, this might become an issue of a bad academic institution that needs to be punished by academic authorities, not an athletic issue that needs to be punished by an athletic authority. UNC has a defense in this case. I hope it's not good enough of one, but the NCAA actually has a decision to make, and there are solid points on both sides.
As far as the NCAA's handling of Penn State, I think the NCAA way overstepped their bounds. That's the kind of power I don't want the NCAA to have. With that said, I fully agree with the court systems prosecuting those involved to the fullest extent of the law. They deserve prison, not a football team on probation. I want an NCAA that enforces the rules on the books as violations can be adequately proven (no more no less).
P.S. - I know I'm being divisive here. I've been wrongfully accused of being a fan of other schools a few times in my short time on this board (since Friday). I just try to think through all sides of things instead of immediately taking the fan-boy conclusion. That leads me to play the devils advocate sometimes since most people articulate only one side of the argument on these threads.
