Julius Nyang’oro, the former chair of North Carolina’s African studies department, was indicted by an Orange County (N.C.) grand jury on a felony count of “obtaining property by false pretenses” in regards to allegedly accepting a $12,000 fee for a class he did not teach.
               

The (Raleigh) News & Observer’s Dan Kane reported Tuesday that the charge is considered a lower-level felony and that Nyang’oro, 59, would not likely serve jail time if convicted.


According to Kane’s report, an internal examination of alleged academic fraud at UNC reached as far back as the 1990s, with more than 200 courses supposedly offered as lecture classes that either were believed or confirmed to have not gathered. Instead, papers were assigned to the students, and an average grade of B-plus was issued despite minimal evidence the papers were being graded.


The N&O reported athletes made up 45 percent of the students in these classes despite composing only five percent of the student body. The greatest number of these athletes were football players, although there also were basketball players enrolled.


UNC’s report concluded the classes were not designed to aid athletics, reasoning that non-athletes also were involved. The internal investigation reported there was no evidence athletes were directed by athletic administrators to suspect classes.
              

However, the newspaper reported correspondence involving the athletic department’s academic support service “showed counselors there knew the classes didn’t meet and weren’t challenging. The counselors steered academically-challenged freshmen football players into one such class, which was listed in a course catalog as a seminar for seniors majoring in African studies.”


The class for which Nyang’oro is under indictment involved 19 students, 18 of whom were football players. 


“The allegation is that he was paid to teach a face-to-face, lecture-style class and he accepted and kept $12,000 for that, when in fact he didn’t teach that class in a face-to-face, lecture-style manner,” Orange County D.A. Jim Woodall said, according to the N&O.


UNC later recovered the $12,000 by withdrawing it from Nyang’oro’s pay. He resigned from the chairmanship in August 2011, not long after the university began looking into the classes, and retired 10 months later.


ATLANTIS FIELD SET FOR 2014


With ESPN on board to spread the telecasts to a wider audience, the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas continued its march on becoming the strongest in-season college basketball tournament with the announcement of a loaded 2014 field that includes recent national champions North Carolina and Florida and perennial Pac-12 power UCLA.

The field also features teams that were in recent Final Fours including Butler (2010, 2011), Georgetown (2007), Oklahoma (2002) and Wisconsin (2000), which has finished fourth or better in every Big Ten Conference season under coach Bo Ryan. The only team in the field that does not have a Final Four to its credit since the turn of the century is UAB, which never has advanced beyond the Elite Eight.

The Battle 4 Atlantis has been trying to supplant the Maui Invitational as the most prestigious in-season event, offering the luxury of a shorter — and often less expensive — flight from the U.S. mainland. There's also the matter of a full Division I field, as opposed to Maui's inclusion of tournament host Chaminade. Maui's advantage always had been ESPN's involvement as opposed to the less widely distributed NBC Sports Network, which carried Battle's biggest games this season. But ESPN is on board for the next three seasons. Instead of the event beginning on Thanksgiving Day and concluding on a Saturday, the event will move to a Wednesday-Friday format to keep it away from a loaded college football Saturday schedule.

The Battle 4 Atlantis games are played at the Atlantis resort's Imperial Arena. This year's champion was Villanova, which prevailed over a field that included ranked teams Kansas and Iowa as well as Tennessee, Xavier and UTEP.

The 2014 Maui field was announced last week and includes Arizona, Pitt, Purdue, San Diego State and Missouri.


WILBEKIN OUT INDEFINITELY


Florida point guard Scottie Wilbekin has a high right ankle sprain sustained in Monday’s loss at No. 12 Connecticut, and a timetable for his return is unknown.

The team said X-rays on the ankle were negative. Florida’s next game is a home contest next Tuesday against No. 6 Kansas.

Wilbekin missed the first five games of this season because of a suspension, and has averaged 11.3 points and 5.7 assists since his return.

Wilbekin’s injury is one of many that the Gators are dealing with. Point guard Kasey Hill has missed the last four games with a high-ankle sprain. Guard DeVon Walker has been slowed by a sprained foot. Guard Eli Carter, who transferred from Rutgers, has decided to take a medical redshirt while recovering from a broken leg. And guard Dillon Graham also is done for the season with a hip injury.

In other Gators news, Delta Air Lines canceled an Atlanta-bound commercial flight from Gainesville Regional Airport to accommodate the team on one of the busiest flying days of the year.

The Gainesville Sun reported the team's charter plane was grounded Sunday afternoon by maintenance issues. The team was heading to Storrs, Conn., for a Monday night game against the University of Connecticut.

A Delta spokesman told the newspaper passengers on Delta Connection flight 5059 were either placed on other flights or given vouchers valid for use on future trips. 	Team spokesman Denver Parler told the Sun he wasn't aware passengers were displaced. He said about 35 people affiliated with the team were on the 50-seat plane.

Contributors: Mike DeCourcy, The Associated Press