Let's start at the beginning. While the problems with the AFAM dept at UNC have been reported on for several years, the scope of the academic scandal at UNC, specifically the length of time it had been going on and the number of students and staff involved, of which the AFAM dept problems were just a part, has not been public knowledge for several years. That is why this is news, to the chagrin of UNC apologists everywhere.
And no one except a UNC apologist would assert that UNC has done everything in its power to air its own dirty laundry regarding the scope of the scandal. UNC tried to air just enough to keep everyone satisfied that it was doing everything in its power to get to the bottom of the scandal. The reality was and is that UNC at its highest levels, both on the academic side and the athletic side, had to have known the true scope of the scandal for years. That, or the administration, deans and head coaches at UNC are the dumbest group of folks ever assembled at a prestigious D1 institution.
Yes, UNC commissioned the Wainstein report, but the report itself appears to be an attempt to throw more lower-level people under the bus while still protecting the people who had the most to gain from the rampant academic fraud, the revered coaches and highly-paid administrators. Good "independent investigators" uncover just what the principal wants them to uncover, nothing more. Based on my review of his report, Wainstein is a good "independent investigator."
Your description of Willingham's research is proof that you bought UNC's narrative lock, stock and barrel. She is not a fraud. Her research was not falsified. And, the problem she uncovered dove-tailed quite nicely into the AFAM dept problems, which foreshadowed the broader academic scandal. Rather than acknowledge those facts, UNC went into self-protection mode in the hopes that its longstanding academic fraud would go undiscovered.
I have no doubt that other universities and colleges have done and are continuing to do the same or similar things in terms of academic fraud. The prime suspects are everywhere. Just pick any school where sports is all-important. FSU, OSU, USC, LSU. I would love to see some former players at these universities come forward and detail exactly what they were required to do academically at these schools.