The main issue was with SACS.

There's no way North Carolina should have kept their accreditation.

...there wasn't a chance in hell SACS was going to disenfranchise a state's top-tier university. It simply wasn't going to happen.

The NCAA pussed out by not punishing the Tar Heel basketball team.

It probably involved every single sports team, because it involved thousands of non athletes as well, over decades.

I sympathize with the NCAA when a university tells them "no, these classes met our academic standards - you're not a judge of academic standards, we are."

The NCAA can't do anything at that point because they are not, in fact, equipped to judge the academic merits of purported classes and coursework.

Perhaps it's true that SACS was never going to do anything, but that just eliminates any credibility or worth they had.

North Carolina is a fraudulent institution. This isn't about athletics or cheating - its that at the core of their mission they have no integrity.