T hrough her time in the public eye, former UNC learning specialist Mary Willingham has presented herself as a whistle-blower , fighting to take down a corrupt system and stand up for the rights of student-athletes to receive a legitimate education.
But Willingham, whose research has come into question, has now herself become the story, making her an ineffective champion for student-athletes.
Her decision to co-author a book with history professor Jay Smith called “Cheated: The UNC Scandal, the Education of Athletes, and the Future of Big-Time College Sports” casts questions on her motives.
Smith, an expert in French history, and Willingham, a former learning specialist with a shaky research background, hardly seem like the most qualified authors of a treatise on the problems with college athletics. Both Willingham and Smith declined to comment.
Willingham and Smith are presenting themselves as authorities on the subject and potentially setting themselves up to profit from supposed expertise. This seems ironic given their central criticism is of the exploitation of college athletes by the NCAA, as they exploit a hot button issue for media attention and potential profits.
But now, with the revelation that Willingham may have lied on her research application, it is becoming clear that even if her intentions are pure, she is not a competent advocate for college athletes .
Willingham and Smith are correct to assert that the NCAA is fundamentally exploitative, but both researchers have become a distraction.
One need not look far to find problems of the NCAA in Chapel Hill: for example, the University should be ashamed of how it handled the Devon Ramsay situation. Once considered a NFL prospect before his athletic career was derailed, he was made a scapegoat to the NCAA for a mistake for which UNC was ultimately responsible .
The issues are much bigger than Willingham and Smith, and athletes have better advocates fighting for them, like renowned civil rights historian and author Taylor Branch .
