UNC system President Tom Ross was in Charlotte this week to talk to a group of businessmen about higher education and UNC’s future. With UNC Chapel Hill still emerging from an academics/athletic scandal involving no-show classes, an audience member asked Ross to talk about the need for UNC and other universities to balance academics and athletics.
Ross said there is no need for “balance” – that academics always have to be preeminent. He went on to name some things schools and others could do to mitigate the influence of the big money in which college football and basketball are awash. Those include forcing basketball players to stay at least three years, clamping down on meddling agents and congressional action to give universities more control of things.
