CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — A college professor who studies cheating at universities says the scandal at the University of North Carolina stands out among others.

Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, says the existence of fake classes and automatic grades is a pretty extreme example of cheating. An investigative report released Wednesday found that about 3,100 students at UNC took the sham classes in the school's Afro-American Studies department from 1993 to 2011. Nearly half of those students were athletes, many of them football and basketball players.

At least nine university employees were fired or under disciplinary review, and the question now becomes what, if anything, the NCAA will do next. Penalties could range from fewer scholarships to vacated wins.