The NCAA has told UNC-Chapel Hill its arguments asserting that the athletic association has no jurisdiction in a bogus classes scandal is " without merit.”

 

In released documents to the raleigh News and Observer,  the NCAA contends that UNC's “willful violations” and “blatant disregard” for NCAA regulations allow it to pursue a case beyond a four-year statute of limitations. The NCAA also said that the extent of the misconduct didn’t become known until 2014.

 

“The new information provided, for the first time, a complete picture of the athletics department’s preferential access to anomalous AFRI/AFAM courses and, in some cases, how it used those courses to retain NCAA academic eligibility for student-athletes,” the NCAA’s enforcement staff said. “This access provided student-athletes with advantages that other students simply did not have.”

 

The case has prompted a rare preliminary hearing by the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions set for Friday in Indianapolis. The hearing is closed to the public. The hearing will determine whether the NCAA has the legal grounds under its regulations to pursue a case against UNC over the fake classes. 

 

Various investigations found 18 years of fake classes in the Department of African and Afro-American Studies. More than 3,100 students took at least one of the classes, with athletes making up roughly half of that group despite representing less than 4 percent of the student body.