The UNC scandal’s beneficiaries were athletes from predominately lower-to-middle class backgrounds. They weren’t competing for the same post-grad jobs and internships as the general applicant pool. They were on an athletic track whose post-grad opportunities were essentially totally different from most of the campus body.

This is annoying if you think universities shouldn’t have high-budget, self-standing athletic programs coupled to their putatively academic mission, or that even if they do, they should play by the rules. But this doesn’t raise the same ire as the observation that wealthy people can simply buy their way into the academic track. At least the athletes had to have athletic merit.