Sunday is traditionally the day for local newspapers to run blockbuster editorials…and anyone with a News & Observer subscription (at least) got something on the UNC scandal. Par for the course, the good folks who live in Charlotte still have almost no idea that a scandal is even breaking in Chapel Hill. It is so sad.
You can bet that Charlotte Observer will make sure the who region knows what days of the week Indiana Pacers’ forward, Tyler Hansbrough uses a white towel to wipe his sweat as opposed to a dark towel…but, why should we all be bothered with the biggest athletics and academic scandal in the history of the Athletics Coast Conference?
Money. Glory. Greed. The pursuit of all three. Yes, the unfolding story of what’s been going on behind the scenes with the football program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has just about everything. What it doesn’t yet have is an ending, and neither the coach and athletics director nor the university’s academic leader are making it easy to get there.
As for Thorp, instead of just backing his coach and athletics director, he ought to be using this as a teaching opportunity. Has the university come to this moment at least in part as a result of being lured into a potentially humiliating situation because it blindly followed single-minded boosters whose primary concern is athletics, or because it swooned at the sight of television money or because it craved “big-time” glory without considering the now-apparent risks? Maybe the answers will come clear, for the story, sadly, has a ways to go.
The editorial is not that damning…but, at least it is something.
If you want to read two FANTASTICALLY written editorials on the recent events at UNC then I suggest to click here (#1) and click here (#2).
