The ramifications can be catastrophic, although the chance of that happening is remote. But if they jump the traces again in the next year, every school in the university, as Buzz776g said, can lose accredidation. Meaning on the one hand that English degree is now on sale for half price because it was not obtained at an accredited university, meaning in theory that Uncle Bozo could have earned that degree. But in immediately tangible terms, all federal funding and grants are gone, presto, and federally-backed student loans are kaput. Kind of imagine GT with all its federal grant funding for research and development gone. Counter-intuitively, this is probably the best hope for those who want that athletic department cleaned up, and if it means losing NC banners, and being banned post-season in '16 for what is supposed to be an outstanding bkb team, so be it. I know one graduate so furious he wants his alma mater to get the death penalty. But Buzz can give you a more thorough and better response.
Skeptic above has hit all the salient points better than I could.
The main thing in many people's minds is that when a school loses accreditation, there is technically no longer any certification from an independent, objective outside agency that the degree is in fact actually what it purports to be. No parent is gonna spend tens of thousands to send their kid somewhere to receive something worth no more than a diploma mill printout diploma off the internet.
In practice, accreditation removals usually hinge on minor things that can be quickly corrected, sometimes no more than some missing paperwork or similar. In those cases "customer" confidence in the quality of the university, and in that school's reobtaining accreditation, are high and it's not really all that big of a deal, although it still is a black eye.
In UNC's case it is significantly more major than that. They will need to show SACS highly detailed plans for correcting the academic problems, completely separately from anything to do with athletics. (Remember that these fake classes were half regular students, too, not just athletes.)
There are regional accrediting bodies that cover the US and they all follow pretty much the same rules. SACS is the one for the South. It is by no means a gimme that they will regain accreditation in a year; it may be extended. This is major, and the accrediting agencies are actually pretty free of bias. They can't readily be influenced politically or bought off.
