Lawsuit tries to blow up NCAA over UNC academic fraud mess

The complaint tries to make the NCAA culpable by not only ignoring the North Carolina academic fraud case, but also due to the association's history of other academic fraud cases and issues related to academic rigor.

The complaint alleges that North Carolina and the NCAA “enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship that neither wished to disturb despite warning signs of academic fraud. The NCAA relished the exponential increase in revenue, which funded the NCAA's own operations and which was distributed to its member institutions. UNC likewise enjoyed the revenues that came with winning, as well as the increased popularity and attendant recruiting advantages.”

Around the time of Kenneth Wainstein's report into the academic scandal, the NCAA began investigating North Carolina again as new witnesses began to speak. The lawsuit alleges the NCAA conducted only a "cursory investigation" the first time it reviewed details and "insisted that any scandal was academic and not athletic -- despite the disproportionate enrollment of student-athletes" in the fraudulent African-American Studies classes.