UNC Sports Officially Doomed

At least the ones that really matter…

According to the Raleigh News & Observer, University of North Carolina chancellor Holden Thorp, who is giving up his position at the school, the university will institute higher academic standards for student-athletes and have more administrative oversight in the wake of the recent scandals.

“Academics are going to have to come first,” Thorp said. “And it’s clear that they haven’t to the extent that they should.”

An auditing firm is conducting a review of North Carolina’s practices with regards to its student-athletes.

Thorp promised that the actions to be taken after the review is completed will be “ground-breaking.”

Yike.

Here are a few tidbits of note:

• Among the biggest changes would be tougher admission standards, including limits on instances where athletes are granted exceptions to normal UNC-Chapel Hill standards in order to be admitted.
• In the past five years, 53 football players have been admitted to UNC-Chapel Hill under that process, according to university records.
• The university could not immediately say Wednesday how many basketball players were also admissions exceptions, citing rules that prevent revealing a player’s identity. Admissions officials said providing the number of basketball exceptions could reveal player identities because each year’s class size of basketball recruits is relatively small.

As we know, Virginia has been utilizing this same strategy for years and has been handsomely rewarded with basketball and football mediocrity.