The Rivalry Lives On: Maryland's President Thinks North Carolina Deserves The Death Penalty

TheSportingNews- A prominent university president says the NCAA should use its so-called "death penalty" on North Carolina's athletic department as a result of the school's academic scandal.

“As president I sit over a number of dormant volcanoes,” Maryland president Wallace Loh said at an on-campus meeting last week (via the News & Observer). “One of them is an athletic scandal. It blows up, it blows up the university, its reputation, it blows up the president.

“For the things that happened in North Carolina, it’s abysmal. I would think that this would lead to the implementation of the death penalty by the NCAA. But I’m not in charge of that.”

Loh's comment was in response to a question about corruption in college athletics during a University of Maryland faculty senate meeting last week.

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As far as holier than thou, unsolicited attacks on the ethics of a university that is not their own are concerned, Wallace Loh's might be my favorite one of all time. That may seem strange because it references a scandal that - while egregious - is far from limited to the particular school that happens to be caught up in it. However, it's the underlying inspiration behind these comments that I am concerned with, and that motivator is a rivalry that even conference realignment couldn't put an end to. 

I have no doubts that Maryland's president wants to the uphold the scholastic integrity of his university, but for him to take direct aim at a familiar foe as if their specific fake classes and forged grades are what is solely responsible for the downfall of academia just seems a little too convenient. Baylor turning Waco, Texas into a territory whose threat level equates to that of Bill Cosby's bedroom wasn't worth mentioning? Penn State basically ran an on-site daycare to satisfy Jerry Sandusky's sickening desires, but they don't even get a name drop? Morals are getting compromised all over college sports and trumped up transcripts is what has Wallace Loh warming up the electric chair? I have no problem with a university higher-up being a stickler for proper schooling, but don't tell me that there's not something other than educational ideals at work when he suspiciously chooses Chapel Hill as the one he wants to die on. ​I ACC right through vindictive bullshit Wallace, no matter how well intentioned it might be.