(CNN)When football season begins, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels will have more than just 12 games to worry about. They're also facing the looming judgment of the NCAA infractions board for the worst academic fraud case in the history of college sports.
The NCAA found evidence of academic fraud -- five Level 1 violations -- and is pursuing sanctions against the university. The fraud went on for 18 years and involved members of the athletic department pushing athletes into sham "paper" classes where plagiarism was rampant, the university's own investigation found. It was institutional cheating used to keep players' grades up.
But if you want to take a guess at how severe the NCAA's sanctions will be, good luck.
A study of dozens of recent cases of academic fraud across the country found that when it comes to investigating and punishing universities for wrongdoing, the NCAA is all over the map.
Three respected university researchers analyzed 39 allegations of academic fraud since 1990, including UNC, and found a "lack of consistency" in how the allegations were handled. They also found that the NCAA is more inclined to "provide sanctions that keep in mind the impact on the larger association than practicing equitable decision-making."
"We found there were great inconsistencies," said Gerald Gurney, a former athletics-academic director at the University of Oklahoma who is now also the president of the Drake Group for academic integrity in collegiate sport. "There have been cases of obvious academic fraud ... and the NCAA has not been investigating those cases. And we are scratching our heads wondering why."
