The GPA requirement is incidental. It happens to be the barrier to playing ball. There is a straightforward economic incentive (money) for both the school and

The GPA requirement is incidental. It happens to be the barrier to playing ball. There is a straightforward economic incentive (money) for both the school and the athletes to practice more and win more, and it plainly has nothing to do with academics, whatever the grand rhetoric about student athletes. As with all such situations, when there is a barrier to economic success, the system will gradually evolve to short circuit those barriers (cheating) as much as is possible within the confines of the rules. This is well documented by now. I have to imagine that UNC was just unlucky enough to get caught.