Throughout this year, the full scale of the academic scandal at the University of North Carolina has gradually been laid bare. This was not a mere case of cheating or misbehavior, nor is it merely a college sports scandal. It is a systematic, two-decade-long conspiracy involving academic advisers, students, at least one low-level administrator and the chairman of the university’s Afro-American studies department.

More than 3,000 students — nearly half of them athletes — were permitted to take African-American Studies classes that involved no work, no attendance and obviously no learning. They were essentially expected to plagiarize their final papers, or else just write nonsensical essays — and many did. In the cases of several star athletes, the grades — which were (incredibly) awarded by the department’s secretary and signed off by its chairman — kept them eligible to play basketball or football.