Cheated: The Unc Scandal, the Education of Athletes, and the Future of Big-Time College Sports

Description

Home of the legendary Tar Heels basketball team, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill enjoys a sporting brand known the world over. The alma mater of Michael Jordan and Mia Hamm, winner of forty national championships in six different sports, and a partner in what Sporting News calls "the best rivalry in sports," UNC-Chapel Hill is a colossus of college athletics. Now, it has become ground zero in the debate on how the $16 billion college sports industry operates--an industry that coexists uneasily within a university system professly dedicated to education and research. Written by notorious UNC athletics department whistleblower, Mary Willingham, and her close faculty ally, Jay Smith, Cheated: The UNC Scandal, the Education of Athletes, and the Future of Big-Time College Sports exposes the fraudulent inner workings that for decades have allowed barely literate basketball and football players to take fake courses, earning fake degrees from one of the nation's top universities while faculty and administrators looked the other way. In unobscured detail, Cheated recounts the academic fraud in UNC's athletic department, even as university leaders attempted to sweep the matter under the rug in order to keep the billion-dollar college sports revenue machine functioning, and it makes an impassioned argument that the"student-athletes" in these programs are being cheated of what, after all, has been promised them from the start--a college education.

Jay M. Smith is a professor of History at UNC-Chapel Hill and has served in a variety of administrative capacities involving the management of undergraduate education. A specialist in early-modern French history, Smith has published four books on the subject. Mary Willingham works in the Center for Student Success and Academic Counseling (CSSAC) at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and is a Clinical Instructor for UNC in the School of Education. She is the recipient of the 2013 Robert Maynard Hitchins Award from the Drake Group, which honors a university employee who has stood for integrity in the face of college sport corruption.

"This should be required reading for everyone."--A. R./I>--A. R. Sanderson "CHOICE " "This excellent book is a canary in the coalmine for those who love athletics at the collegiate level."--Jorge Iber, Sport in American History--Jorge Iber "Sport in American History " "All readers interested in education, public affairs, and college athletics will find this book essential."--John Maxymuk, Library Journal--John Maxymuk"Library Journal" (03/01/2015) "[Cheated] offers a stinging critique of UNC-Chapel Hill's handling of the academic and athletic wrongdoing that kept student athletes eligible to compete and persisted for nearly two decades."--Jane Stancill, News & Observer--Jane Stancill"News & Observer" (01/15/2015) "Those who care about the soul--and economics--of the $16 billion-a-year college sports industry should clear their reading calendar for Cheated."--Paul Barrett, Bloomberg Business--Paul Barrett"Bloomberg Business" (02/19/2015) "Cheated sounds an important call for reform."--Gregg Easterbrook, Wall Street Journal--Gregg Easterbrook"Wall Street Journal" (02/27/2015)