UNC didn't buy the NCAA's lie

OPINION - The NCAA told Louisville (and many other schools) that it wants Universities to self-police - and that they would be rewarded for self-policing. If they didn't self-police, the NCAA would come down harder on them. That's a lie.

Honestly, even before the UNC verdict was released Friday, we already knew that was a lie. We knew it because the NCAA's heavy-handed verdict in the Louisville case went far beyond the school's self-imposed sanctions.

In fact, the school's self-imposed sanctions were almost an after-thought when the committee released its findings. This despite the fact that Louisville cooperated with the NCAA every step of the way, turned over thousands of documents and made everyone available they could force to make available.

So why should the UNC case interest Louisville fans? It further proves the NCAA wasn't telling the truth when it told UofL's administration and special counsel Chuck Smrt that working WITH the NCAA Committee on Infractions was better in the long run than working AGAINST them.

Turns out, that's a load of hooey.

Sure, the cases are different. No question. Louisville's ugly scandal involved an ickiness that UNC's fakes classes just didn't have. But the NCAA claiming jurisdictional limits in the UNC case seems silly when they had no issue throwing out the monetary value in Louisville's extra benefits case and making their punishment based on moral outrage.

So why did UNC get off? Simple. The NCAA relies solely on schools to determine if academic fraud took place for student-athletes and their eligibility. UNC essentially said there was no academic fraud for student-athletes and they stuck with their lie. And it worked.

Schools from now on should follow the UNC model: obscure, obfuscate and fight - every step of the way.