The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill suffered severe embarrassment a couple of years ago when it was revealed that some of its prize student-athletes in the big revenue sports (football and basketball) had gotten credit for courses where they did hardly any work and the classes did not actually meet. Since then, the story has deepened. A researcher has said that a rather large number of the school’s athletes have woefully poor reading ability. The University has countered with its own experts who say that the problem is de minimis.

Today’s Pope Center Clarion Call by Jenna Ashley Robinson examines this ongoing controversy. Her piece also points to other probative evidence, such as the low SAT scores and high school GPAs of most of the athletes. A particularly telling quotation comes from a UNC reading specialist who says there have been, “many student-athletes who were specially admitted whose academic preparedness is so low they cannot succeed here.” Of course, when students are “too important to fail” because winning or losing basketball or football seasons depend on them, the result is shenanigans to keep them eligible.

The exact number of student-athletes who read at a grade-school level is beside the point. Universities shouldn’t admit such students at all.