This week 7 school teachers were sentenced with up to 7 years in prison for fraudulent standardized testing. If I was involved in that sort of nonsense at UNC, I'd be looking to cut a deal with someone and cover my rear.
I don't think the two are comparable in the sense that the school teachers were charged with criminal offenses, and serious ones at that - racketeering. The teachers in question also had a very long period to work with the prosecutor and were given an option to cut a deal early. They decided to raise the stakes and take it to trial, where they were found guilty.
The NCAA is a business with civil concerns (i.e. money). I'd read they already spent half a mil on PR around the case, and it would surprise me if they didn't settle this one. Most civil cases involve posturing, and rarely get resolved by going the distance. Right now, I have to believe that the main leverage is not the wrong-doing, but the damage they can do from dragging the institution through the mud. The longer it goes, the less leverage the athletes have, so somewhere along the way, I'd expect them to take the money and run, even if it's not much.
If there's also a criminal probe, I'd agree, but I've not heard anything of that, or rumblings that it's being investigated.
Bottom line, there's a long history of the NCAA ignoring, or giving lip service to these types of scandals, and for that reason I expect nothing to change.
