David Robinson On The UNC Scandal And College Reform

The scandal over at UNLV-Chapel Hill has been resolved in the sense that the NCAA decided it lacked the authority to punish the school. The judgement of public perception is ongoing however and Chapel Hill is losing that battle badly.

Add to the critics Navy and NBA legend (and father of Duke forward Justin Robinson) David Robinson.

The Admiral, who is widely respected athletically, intellectually and ethically, is a member of both the Knight Commission and the Rice Commission. He calls what happened at UNC “the most damaging thing“ he’s seen personally in college sports. Here’s the full quote:

“If you’re going to promise education, and you say this is our big benefit to you is giving you a potential to make $1 million more over your lifetime because we give you a great education, then you say the classes we gave you weren’t valid, then I have a real problem with that and that’s probably the most damaging thing I’ve seen personally.

“It undermines everything we talk about with here’s the value of what we’re giving these kids. Then we’re undermining the value of what we’re giving the kids. ... If you have a system where you’re not really giving the kids what you promised, it does kind of look like, you know, slavery or just a really bad system.”