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Cheated: The UNC Scandal, the Education of Athletes, and the Future of Big-Time College Sports
In 2010 allegations of an utterly corrupt academic system for student-athletes emerged from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus, home of the legendary Tar Heels. As the alma mater of Michael Jordan, Larry Brown, Marion Jones, Lawrence Taylor, Rashad McCants, and many others; winner of forty national championships in six different sports; and a partner in one of the best rivalries in sports, UNC–Chapel Hill is a world-famous colossus of college athletics. In the wake of the Wainstein report, however, the fallout from this scandal—and the continuing spotlight on the failings of college athletics—has made the school ground zero in the debate about how the $16 billion college sports industry operates. Written by UNC professor of history Jay Smith and UNC athletics department whistleblower Mary Willingham, Cheated exposes the fraudulent inner workings of this famous university. For decades these internal systems have allowed woefully underprepared basketball and football players to take fake courses and earn devalued degrees from one of the nation’s top universities while faculty and administrators looked the other way. In unbiased and carefully sourced detail, Cheated recounts the academic fraud in UNC’s athletics department, even as university leaders focused on minimizing the damage in order to keep the billion-dollar college sports revenue machine functioning. Smith and Willingham make an impassioned argument that the “student-athletes” in these programs are being cheated out of what, after all, is promised them in the first a college education.
356 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
March 26, 2021
Read for school, but an interesting journalistic take on the UNC scandal. Great take on the history of events; which was covered up by the institution and news. Definitely give a read if you’re interested in academic fraud cases at universities.
February 26, 2018
Comprehensive account of the academic fraud at UNC from a decidedly academic perspective.
June 17, 2015
Interesting info. Would have been an interesting newspaper article. Made for a boring and redundant 300 page book.
Read
September 17, 2016Meh. Read it for class. Good overview of the scandal, but starts from the assumption that a scholarship is adequate compensation for so called "student-athletes." It's not.
August 23, 2017
Regardless of your bias towards light or dark blue, this book brings up some thoughtful issues regarding student athletes / athlete students.
November 26, 2023
At UNC, athletes are still treated like gods and Dean Smith, Mack Brown, and Roy Williams are kings where it's understandable how this culture was created and was replicated at other institutions. College sports is a driving profit at institutions if it's not for name, and somehow UNC was able to exploit and make another national headline from exploiting its athletes, AAAD courses, and privilege to go to games. This book is a great deep dive of the scandal, the players, and who was ultimately harmed from this scandal. Some parts were close to home as an alumni of UNC and ASPSA, like I didn't realize my former manager and I were new hires after the scandal and why 'Mack is Back' was such a big deal in 2019. Like some things we know and have accepted as the culture of a college with a reputable athletic program, but eerie to see corruption follow when too much of a college reputation is on this athletics program to make profit — and that causes not only athlete's education to suffer, but also non-athletic students with all the money going back into the program.
February 6, 2025
Picked this up mostly because of a podcast I was listening to this week, but. Uh. I also recently started a new job as an academic advisor and my GOD is this an object lesson in how I don't want to preform my new job?!? I have no idea how accessible this version of events is to folks who haven't spent the last two decades working in higher ed, but if you (like me) are weirdly invested in the minutiae of course scheduling and independent study teaching loads, BOY do I have a book for you!
(Although I will say that Smith’s tenured faculty privilege and Willingham’s obvious guilt does tend to make the narrative focus a bit too much on the support staff. Like. My guy. Do you REALLY think that the chair of African American Studies who was never on campus because he traveled so much REALLY didn’t count those fake classes in his teaching numbers?! He 110% did, and so did all of the other folks with their names on classes, let’s not kid ourselves.)
(Although I will say that Smith’s tenured faculty privilege and Willingham’s obvious guilt does tend to make the narrative focus a bit too much on the support staff. Like. My guy. Do you REALLY think that the chair of African American Studies who was never on campus because he traveled so much REALLY didn’t count those fake classes in his teaching numbers?! He 110% did, and so did all of the other folks with their names on classes, let’s not kid ourselves.)
June 4, 2017
Glad I got around to reading this. As a alumnus of Chapel Hill, I was sad to hear about the scandal because my experience at the school was so good: academically rigorous yet giving me room to breath and find my career path. And college basketball is the only team sport I follow now because of of CH.
This book, written by a Chapel Hill historian, provided great insight into the whole affair. The strongest chapters are seven and eight. They focused on the athletes themselves, as well as the systematic nationwide issues that affect college athletics. I also loved the title, simply because I'm struggling with what to title my dissertation. "Cheated" speaks to both the past actions of athletic and academic officials, but as an adjective, it speaks to how the athletes were cheated out of a solid education.
The early chapters are good but I'm not sure there needed to be so many of them. I think chapters 2 and 3 could have been combined and condensed. Same with 4, 5, and 6. I also would have preferred that the authors just write in first person about their involvement in the investigation. The two authors wrote about each other's experiences in order to maintain a semblance of historical objectivity. But I'm of a school of that believes that no historical account is truly objective, so there's no need to perform it.
On the whole, I recommend reading the intro and the last three chapters. The middle stuff you can skim...
This book, written by a Chapel Hill historian, provided great insight into the whole affair. The strongest chapters are seven and eight. They focused on the athletes themselves, as well as the systematic nationwide issues that affect college athletics. I also loved the title, simply because I'm struggling with what to title my dissertation. "Cheated" speaks to both the past actions of athletic and academic officials, but as an adjective, it speaks to how the athletes were cheated out of a solid education.
The early chapters are good but I'm not sure there needed to be so many of them. I think chapters 2 and 3 could have been combined and condensed. Same with 4, 5, and 6. I also would have preferred that the authors just write in first person about their involvement in the investigation. The two authors wrote about each other's experiences in order to maintain a semblance of historical objectivity. But I'm of a school of that believes that no historical account is truly objective, so there's no need to perform it.
On the whole, I recommend reading the intro and the last three chapters. The middle stuff you can skim...
December 17, 2017
Not really surprised that athletics drives the bus at colleges. Lots of details about easy classes are created, grades manipulated and creative ways are found to get athletes admitted to a college and to keep them eligible to play.
The authors obviously have an agenda considering how one of them is involved with a reform movement.
The authors obviously have an agenda considering how one of them is involved with a reform movement.
February 12, 2022
As an academic support professional, this story resonated deeply with me. Some very interesting parts to this book, and so much detail! At points, it was little too dense for me- but ultimately a good read for anyone in this field
September 14, 2022
for the most part, i did really enjoy this book. the facts of the scandal are horrific (especially as a unc alum who busted my butt for four years). it’s very easy to feel sorry for all the “student athletes” (a term the authors don’t like) and how badly they’ve been mistreated and manipulated throughout the years.
my only gripe with the book—and it’s a pretty big one—is that a lot of the story with which the authors were personally involved came off as quite self-congratulatory. even the parts where smith and willingham admitted to having stayed silent for too long before coming forward made them look like angels in comparison to all the other faculty members and other players involved in this massive cover up. i really didn’t enjoy the constant self-aggrandizement and it took me away from appreciating the research that went into the rest of the (very well done) book.
basically, the factual bits were fascinating from start to end, but my eyes glazed whenever the authors talked about themselves. i’d still recommend the book, but with a grain of salt!
my only gripe with the book—and it’s a pretty big one—is that a lot of the story with which the authors were personally involved came off as quite self-congratulatory. even the parts where smith and willingham admitted to having stayed silent for too long before coming forward made them look like angels in comparison to all the other faculty members and other players involved in this massive cover up. i really didn’t enjoy the constant self-aggrandizement and it took me away from appreciating the research that went into the rest of the (very well done) book.
basically, the factual bits were fascinating from start to end, but my eyes glazed whenever the authors talked about themselves. i’d still recommend the book, but with a grain of salt!
June 29, 2019
Definitely a good read. Change is on the horizon
September 2, 2025
The moral of a sttory: DO NOT INFURIATE A FACULTY. HE WOULD DEDICATE A BOOK TO SLAM YOU BACK!!
October 30, 2016
This is the kind of book that will leave those of us trying to reconcile academics and athletics in cold sweats. Below I'll just bullet some of the stuff I underlined and noted, but let me try on a few more general notes-to-self, most pretty obvious.
The money and prestige of big-time athletics corrupts. Getting good people is great, but we have to get the institutions right. To me, that especially means that *faculty* need to play more of a role in governing intercollegiate athletics, in insisting on the primacy of the academic mission, in oversight, in articulating the vision, in policing ourselves and our administrators and our coaches. The book ends by insisting on the centrality of the faculty-student nexus. The most magical aspect of faculty life is the joy of working with young people to help them blaze their own trails. We don't need to explore the world in search of the fountain of youth, we find it right in front of us and all around us, every day. We must relentlessly prioritize our students, from the faculty point of view - not by cutting paths of least resistance for them, which some probably-well-meaning folks like Debbie Crowder and lots of learning specialists did at UNC, but by challenging our students to learn and grow, all while helping them along.
What went wrong at UNC? So, so much.
Lots of individuals engaged in misguided or bad acts. The aforementioned Debbie Crowder (admin in the Africana and Afro-American Studies department at UNC) was almost certainly well-intentioned, sympathetic to lots of students who had been and were being exploited for their physical gifts but insufficiently invested-in in other respects. The chair of that department, Julius Nyang'oro, may well have shared that motivation, but we don't really get any view of him. He comes off as mostly just corrupt, a sports fan in a position to help Carolina athletics and enjoy lots of perks (money, tickets, trips, etc.) in return. Other individual faculty and some departments seem subject to the same assessment. The Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR), the chair of the faculty senate, and lots of deanlets, deans, and higher-ups evince multiple varieties of venality, careerism, cover-your-assism and wilful indifference. Coaches? Let me just say F Mack Brown, F Butch Davis, and F Roy Williams (the man must be blind, deaf and stupid - amazing how far he's made it). And on and on it goes - it is standing room only in the rogues' gallery.
But, of course, the book lays bear shocking cultural and institutional failings. I have tremendous respect for UNC as an intellectual operation. In my field, it is full of world-class scholars who are also wonderful human beings. But as an institution, Carolina utterly failed to do its job and utterly failed the students who were "cheated" of the education that the institution should be in the business - the only business - of providing. Speaking in my personal capacity, if the NCAA doesn't throw the book at UNC for violating its most sacred trust - educating its students - then I will seriously question what it is for, and whether its voluminous handbook is a book at all, or maybe just useful for papering things over, so to speak.
Anyway, random notes follow.
read: Taylor Branch, "The Shame of College Sports," Atlantic, 2011.
read: Armstrong & Perry, Scoreboard, Baby
- admissions stage is most crucial, ensure we don't bring in ill-prepared students, lessening perceived need to help too much
- FAR Jack Evans was not minding the store
- academic advisors giving way too much "guidance" - eligibility maintenance the key imperative - constructing schedules, selecting majors, etc. etc.
-156: "intersecting forms of desperation that are integral to the world of big-time college sport" - "66% of all African American males between the ages of 13 and 18 believe they can earn a living playing professional sports" ... desperation of coaches in hyper-competitive environment ... "the recruiting desperation of coaches converges with the desperation of all those dreaming high school athletes to produce an elaborate admissions process that is rife with fraud and faker" (Smith and Willingham 2015, 159).
-175 good example of inappropriate clustering in majors
-228 is there any way to blind the learning specialists to eligibility issues?
-241: "absent a large and uncompromising coalition of tenured faculty, one that crosses institutional boundaries and encompasses all of the big-time schools, reform will never happen from the inside out".
-248 alliance of students and faculty
The money and prestige of big-time athletics corrupts. Getting good people is great, but we have to get the institutions right. To me, that especially means that *faculty* need to play more of a role in governing intercollegiate athletics, in insisting on the primacy of the academic mission, in oversight, in articulating the vision, in policing ourselves and our administrators and our coaches. The book ends by insisting on the centrality of the faculty-student nexus. The most magical aspect of faculty life is the joy of working with young people to help them blaze their own trails. We don't need to explore the world in search of the fountain of youth, we find it right in front of us and all around us, every day. We must relentlessly prioritize our students, from the faculty point of view - not by cutting paths of least resistance for them, which some probably-well-meaning folks like Debbie Crowder and lots of learning specialists did at UNC, but by challenging our students to learn and grow, all while helping them along.
What went wrong at UNC? So, so much.
Lots of individuals engaged in misguided or bad acts. The aforementioned Debbie Crowder (admin in the Africana and Afro-American Studies department at UNC) was almost certainly well-intentioned, sympathetic to lots of students who had been and were being exploited for their physical gifts but insufficiently invested-in in other respects. The chair of that department, Julius Nyang'oro, may well have shared that motivation, but we don't really get any view of him. He comes off as mostly just corrupt, a sports fan in a position to help Carolina athletics and enjoy lots of perks (money, tickets, trips, etc.) in return. Other individual faculty and some departments seem subject to the same assessment. The Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR), the chair of the faculty senate, and lots of deanlets, deans, and higher-ups evince multiple varieties of venality, careerism, cover-your-assism and wilful indifference. Coaches? Let me just say F Mack Brown, F Butch Davis, and F Roy Williams (the man must be blind, deaf and stupid - amazing how far he's made it). And on and on it goes - it is standing room only in the rogues' gallery.
But, of course, the book lays bear shocking cultural and institutional failings. I have tremendous respect for UNC as an intellectual operation. In my field, it is full of world-class scholars who are also wonderful human beings. But as an institution, Carolina utterly failed to do its job and utterly failed the students who were "cheated" of the education that the institution should be in the business - the only business - of providing. Speaking in my personal capacity, if the NCAA doesn't throw the book at UNC for violating its most sacred trust - educating its students - then I will seriously question what it is for, and whether its voluminous handbook is a book at all, or maybe just useful for papering things over, so to speak.
Anyway, random notes follow.
read: Taylor Branch, "The Shame of College Sports," Atlantic, 2011.
read: Armstrong & Perry, Scoreboard, Baby
- admissions stage is most crucial, ensure we don't bring in ill-prepared students, lessening perceived need to help too much
- FAR Jack Evans was not minding the store
- academic advisors giving way too much "guidance" - eligibility maintenance the key imperative - constructing schedules, selecting majors, etc. etc.
-156: "intersecting forms of desperation that are integral to the world of big-time college sport" - "66% of all African American males between the ages of 13 and 18 believe they can earn a living playing professional sports" ... desperation of coaches in hyper-competitive environment ... "the recruiting desperation of coaches converges with the desperation of all those dreaming high school athletes to produce an elaborate admissions process that is rife with fraud and faker" (Smith and Willingham 2015, 159).
-175 good example of inappropriate clustering in majors
-228 is there any way to blind the learning specialists to eligibility issues?
-241: "absent a large and uncompromising coalition of tenured faculty, one that crosses institutional boundaries and encompasses all of the big-time schools, reform will never happen from the inside out".
-248 alliance of students and faculty
July 11, 2015
If UNC was any other school, they would be staring down the barrel of the NCAA's death penalty, and it shouldn't be too long before we find out exactly what's going to be their punishment. (Only one team has ever received the DP--Southern Methodist--and they were in a class all their own. When the Texas state legislature is passing bills saying it's OK to pay your football players, there really isn't much else to say).
So in the interim, while we wait for the always-plodding NCAA to decide which way to go, there is this book. (If half of what is documented in "Cheaters" is true, the Tarheels are in for some serious shit.) From that perspective, the book is very well done--meticulously researched, foot-noted, and all--ALL--inclusive. The two authors were involved with the cheating and/or the coverup to some degree, which put them in an enviable position to observe everything.
Those are also the book's two main problems. Everything is documented, to the point of eye-glazing catatonia for the reader. Whatever it is that Smith and Willingham do/did at UNC, it did not include editing. This would have been a much better Atlantic-type article than a book.
While I have no reason to think the authors are not being forthcoming in their description of the slowly unfolding scandal, I would have been much more comfortable had this material been presented by a neutral source. The authors have a definite vested interest in presenting their side of the story, and it shows on more than one occasion. (Example: descriptions of Jennifer Wiley, one of the athletic tutors, range from scapegoat to a person aware of being well over the line, depending on which chapter you're reading and what point of view the authors are taking.)
Still, for anyone seriously interested in big-time college sports--or the circus that they've become in the last few years--this is a book well worth reading. Don't kid yourself--if this is going on at a well respected academic institution like UNC, it defies description to think what must be happening at sports "mills".
So in the interim, while we wait for the always-plodding NCAA to decide which way to go, there is this book. (If half of what is documented in "Cheaters" is true, the Tarheels are in for some serious shit.) From that perspective, the book is very well done--meticulously researched, foot-noted, and all--ALL--inclusive. The two authors were involved with the cheating and/or the coverup to some degree, which put them in an enviable position to observe everything.
Those are also the book's two main problems. Everything is documented, to the point of eye-glazing catatonia for the reader. Whatever it is that Smith and Willingham do/did at UNC, it did not include editing. This would have been a much better Atlantic-type article than a book.
While I have no reason to think the authors are not being forthcoming in their description of the slowly unfolding scandal, I would have been much more comfortable had this material been presented by a neutral source. The authors have a definite vested interest in presenting their side of the story, and it shows on more than one occasion. (Example: descriptions of Jennifer Wiley, one of the athletic tutors, range from scapegoat to a person aware of being well over the line, depending on which chapter you're reading and what point of view the authors are taking.)
Still, for anyone seriously interested in big-time college sports--or the circus that they've become in the last few years--this is a book well worth reading. Don't kid yourself--if this is going on at a well respected academic institution like UNC, it defies description to think what must be happening at sports "mills".
May 16, 2015
This book likely deserves more stars, but I'm rating this based partially on how much I enjoyed it - and I only enjoyed the final three chapters, but I thoroughly enjoyed them.
The book is meticulously researched and written, which has the benefit of proving the point but the demerit of boring a reader in endless minutiae.
There are a few minor things I take issue with. The first has to do with repercussions (or lack thereof) of UNC in particular. The fraud outlined in this book spans 21 years. Can UNC's accreditation get pulled retroactively? While I realize such a penalty would harm hundreds of thousands of graduates during the span, such an action would certainly put everyone on notice that educational shenanigans will not be tolerated and may very well end the university or college in question. If that's too extreme, how about suspending accreditation for a year, two years, etc? I would have liked to see this part of the equation addressed. As it is, only the athletic side was really dealt with leaving the larger mission untouched.
The second thing I take issue with is the authors' insistence that these athletes were taken advantage of and defrauded an education that was owed to them. Certainly in some instances, this might be true, however, in the more extreme examples outlined in this book, I'm not so sure. How does a college student that cannot read at a first grade level get deprived of a college education? Seriously, I'm not sure how to grasp that.
As my first complaint might indicate, the greater victims of educational fraud are, in my opinion, the typical student whose credential is called into question.
The book is meticulously researched and written, which has the benefit of proving the point but the demerit of boring a reader in endless minutiae.
There are a few minor things I take issue with. The first has to do with repercussions (or lack thereof) of UNC in particular. The fraud outlined in this book spans 21 years. Can UNC's accreditation get pulled retroactively? While I realize such a penalty would harm hundreds of thousands of graduates during the span, such an action would certainly put everyone on notice that educational shenanigans will not be tolerated and may very well end the university or college in question. If that's too extreme, how about suspending accreditation for a year, two years, etc? I would have liked to see this part of the equation addressed. As it is, only the athletic side was really dealt with leaving the larger mission untouched.
The second thing I take issue with is the authors' insistence that these athletes were taken advantage of and defrauded an education that was owed to them. Certainly in some instances, this might be true, however, in the more extreme examples outlined in this book, I'm not so sure. How does a college student that cannot read at a first grade level get deprived of a college education? Seriously, I'm not sure how to grasp that.
As my first complaint might indicate, the greater victims of educational fraud are, in my opinion, the typical student whose credential is called into question.
April 3, 2015
As a Carolina fan it is difficult to fathom the extent of the cheating and deception that went on at UNC. The cover-up makes it 10 times worse. If Syracuse is an example it looks like many of the games of the Carolina football and basketball teams will be expunged, including the 2005 national championship. It is very difficult to believe the coaches were unaware of this organized cheating to keep players eligible. The Majority of the losers are the players who do not go on to play on professional teams nor do they get a degree that will help them in the future. We have established a culture where winning is everything and athletes are used as a tool to reach that end. I believe this cheating is pervasive and not just at UNC but in all major profit sports. I hope this is a wake up call to change this culture so that we truly have student athletes and not just athletes who attend the University with little benefit. As difficult as this book is to read it's definitely one that everyone who is a sports fan needs to read.
May 22, 2015
This well documented explanation of the intricacies and depth of the UNC athlete-student scandal brings to light what all of us pretty much knew. Division I schools are the minor leagues for football and basketball. What disturbed me the most however, is the authors' insistence that the academically unqualified athletes who are admitted to universities are victims. Rather than having universities provide remedial classes for those athletes who struggled (or in many cases coasted), universities need to stop accepting unqualified "students". Universities are supposed to be HIGHER LEARNING not HIRE learning.
Millions of fans don't want to give up their football/basketball, but the baseball model makes more sense. Let the NFL/NBA develop their own talent, and let's get colleges back to educating those with the ability to do work more challenging than that offered at the middle and high school levels.
Incidentally, removing those who have no intellectual business being on a college campus will likely reduce the number of "off the field" problems as well.
Millions of fans don't want to give up their football/basketball, but the baseball model makes more sense. Let the NFL/NBA develop their own talent, and let's get colleges back to educating those with the ability to do work more challenging than that offered at the middle and high school levels.
Incidentally, removing those who have no intellectual business being on a college campus will likely reduce the number of "off the field" problems as well.
September 11, 2015
Written by individuals involved in the events at UNC, this book has an immediacy to it that just makes the scandal of big-time college athletics that much more saddening. The writers are a UNC history teacher and a staff member who decided to come forward to talk about her involvement in the scandal. The depth of involvement among members of the athletic and student “support” services departments is really appalling, and the athletes being cheated of an education (no-show classes, fake classes, etc.) are clearly being exploited by a system that doesn’t really care about them. Later in the book there are some student profiles that bring a reader closer to the real people being cheated; they really give the book depth. Following the other twists and turns can be tough, but the basic message is one that needs to get out there and coming from witnesses, it makes some compelling reading. It will probably take a more disinterested non-participant to put everything together more novelistically; the prose here can be a little jumpy. But it’s worth the effort.
June 5, 2016
Cheated: The UNC Scandal, The Education of Athletes, and the Future of Big-Time College Sports by J.M. Smith & Mary Willingham (Potomac Books 2015) (796.043). Here's the big college basketball story from 2015: UNC cheated big time! The school actually institutionalized control of the cheating by ceding control of the school's Department of African and Afro-American Studies to a rogue teacher/administrator. The result: The truly gifted athletes – the game changers – earned devalued degrees at UNC. In the most egregious cases, these superstar athletes were given degrees when they could not read or write – or no better than their parents, anyway. So the Tar Heels cheat? I'm a Tarheel fan of long standing, and I'm appalled at the instant sorry state of affairs. Next they will try to tell me that Duket sometimes shades the rules as well. But who am I to criticize? My rating: 7/10, finished 6/2/15.
Read
November 10, 2016I thought that this was a shocking and startling read about how the college sports industry and the coaches and teachers are putting the needs of the university: prestige, recognition and more before the educational needs of its students. I could not stop gasping at how the fraud that was being committed just so that students who were failing essential classes could play in a game. What happens if a student is no longer able to play and needs to find another vocation to pursue? Will they be prepared and do they even fulfill the job requirements in education and more?
I think that we should talk about the importance of education in our society and how it improves us as individuals. I liked this book because of the stories where students were not doing as well and how the teachers and faculty were complicit in committing academic fraud were just so wrong that I could not believe that faculty would go to such lengths to sacrifice what matters most to a student: education.
I think that we should talk about the importance of education in our society and how it improves us as individuals. I liked this book because of the stories where students were not doing as well and how the teachers and faculty were complicit in committing academic fraud were just so wrong that I could not believe that faculty would go to such lengths to sacrifice what matters most to a student: education.
January 23, 2017
The subtitle of this book is: "The UNC Scandal, the Education of Athletes, and the Future of Big-Time College Sports." It is a strong expose on the culture of academic irregularities and, let's just say it -- cheating -- a topic that has come front and center concerning student-athletes at Division I universities.
The authors Jay M. Smith and Mary Willingham were intimately involved -- he is a UNC professor and she was the atletics department whistleblower -- so they know well the level and depth of deception that went on for years at the University of North Carolina, all in the name of "protecting" their athletes from academic failure. Such high-profile athletes as Michael Jordan, Marion Jones, Lawrence Taylor are Tar Heels and they helped the university achieve success in athletics.
But, at what cost?
The authors Jay M. Smith and Mary Willingham were intimately involved -- he is a UNC professor and she was the atletics department whistleblower -- so they know well the level and depth of deception that went on for years at the University of North Carolina, all in the name of "protecting" their athletes from academic failure. Such high-profile athletes as Michael Jordan, Marion Jones, Lawrence Taylor are Tar Heels and they helped the university achieve success in athletics.
But, at what cost?
July 14, 2015
Made it about 100 pages then had a "yeah, yeah, I get it, it was a HUGE scandal" moment and couldn't get beyond my boredom to continue. It's interesting, well written, and full of detail, but at the end of the day, didn't really give me any new information. I mean, of COURSE college athletics/academics are fat with fraud all over the country, and while UNCs was HUGE, it didn't feel like anything new.
July 3, 2015
This is an important book about college athletics. The very worst you always suspected about academic improprieties are even worst than you can imagine. But it somehow was a chore to read because the writing is over wrought or just plain dull. You should read a book like this and feel a sense of outrage, but I mostly was just glad I was done.
August 11, 2015
This book was too dry for my taste. The authors get out in the weeds periodically and its easy to lose track of the individual players. Additionally, I felt like the authors might not have been sufficiently independent from the misconduct so as to give a completely unbiased account.
October 11, 2015
Interesting but got to appoint where I felt the authors were self-serving and trying to paint themselves as the only good people. It actually seems that everyone is at fault, even the precious faculty.
April 27, 2016
Compelling and nauseating story about how UNC athletes were treated as chattel and denied educations (through enrolling in fake courses sanctioned by the institution), told by a faculty member and an assistant who were on the inside. Sickening.
May 26, 2015
Very good review of the scandal at UNC. Excellent recommendations at the end of the book for how universities can proceed so as not to have the problem repeat itself.
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