(TSX / STATS) -- North Carolina's athletic department avoided major penalties when the NCAA Committee on Infractions was unable to conclude the university violated academic rules when it made "paper courses" available to the general student body, including student-athletics.

The practice went on from 1993 to 2011 -- the NCAA investigation was from 2002-11 -- and it involved a Department of African and Afro-American Studies course that required no attendance. Students would write a paper of at least 10 pages instead of having to attend lectures or interact with professors and there was evidence of grade changes and forged faculty signatures.

Yet the NCAA panel found just two violations -- a former department chair and a former curriculum secretary both failed to cooperate with its investigation.