According to a story by the Raleigh News & Observer, football players at the University of North Carolina took summer classes that had no instruction.

Report Dan Kane and Andrew Carter of the News & Observer:

The records show that in the summer of 2011, 19 students enrolled in AFAM 280: Blacks in North Carolina, 18 of them players on the football team, the other a former player. They also show that academic advisers assigned to athletes helped the players enroll in the class, which is the subject of a criminal investigation. The advisers also knew that there would be no instruction.

Other records show that football and basketball players made up a majority of the enrollments of nine particularly suspect classes in which the professors listed as instructors have denied involvement, and have claimed that signatures were forged on records related to them.

Instead of instruction, students were assigned a term paper that was due at the end of the semester.

The university is investigating.

"While it appears that academic support staff (for student athletes) were aware that Professor (Julius) Nyang'oro didn't intend to teach the class as a standard lecture course, they knew that the students would be required to write a 15-page paper," Chancellor Holden Thorp said in a letter to trustees. "They saw no reason to question the faculty member's choice of course format."'

Thorp added that "anytime you have a class consisting solely of student-athletes, it raises questions." (Thanks to the Big Lead for the tip)