In a recent Daily Tar Heel (DTH) article about the fallout from the Wainstein report, UNC Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham was quoted as saying: “At some point we’ve got to move forward. And I think we’re to that point.”
As part of our continuing series, “Why we can’t move forward,” we present another reason UNC-Chapel Hill is only treading water when it calls on everyone to help the flagship “move forward.”
Reason #2 Waiting for banner-removal.
The waiting game has become an embarrassing spectacle. Evidence of the unfair competitive advantages enjoyed by UNC sports teams has been mounting since 2012; the Wainstein report turned a growing snowball into an avalanche. Yet the University cravenly clings to the hope that the NCAA, now conducting its own follow-up inquiry, will fail to adduce the evidence it needs to strip UNC of the championships earned during the fraud years. An honorable University, one that had genuinely changed its ways and had become determined to restore its reputation for fair play and respect for the rules, would move preemptively to take down banners, vacate wins, and apologize to the world for living the life of an institutional cheat. A University where professors and academic officers were truly in charge would not hesitate to take these actions; a University where athletics and athletics boosters remain in control chooses instead to find even the slenderest justification to retain hardware and signage that was earned dishonestly. Cheaters do not get to “move forward” until they have asked for and received the forgiveness of those who were disadvantaged by the violation of the rules of fair play. UNC has yet to learn this lesson.
On this topic, readers may want to read the second chapter of our forthcoming book, Cheated.
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