If you had asked members of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors a few years ago whether any of the 16 institutions under their supervision had a problem with academics and athletics, what would they have said?

Chances are, their statements would have been similar to those made last week by some members of the Kansas Board of Regents who declared with great confidence that nothing like the academic fraud being investigated at UNC could happen at any of the state universities in Kansas. Kansas university leaders are people of integrity, they said, and Kansas has “guidelines,” “class structures” and “all kinds of checks and balances” in place to make sure nothing improper can happen.

Again, it seems likely that the UNC Board of Governors would have expressed the same kind of blind faith in their academic and athletic leaders until confronted with recent evidence of widespread academic fraud involving many athletes receiving high grades for non-existent classes.

Only one of the regents who spoke to the Journal-World, Shane Bangerter, said that “we need to be doing all that we can and make sure our policies are in place to prevent academic fraud from happening.” At the same time, however, Bangerter acknowledged that he didn’t know much about the UNC academic situation — or, probably, what polices are in place at Kansas universities to protect against a similar scandal here.

It’s great that Kansas regents have confidence in the CEOs at their state universities, but there’s a fine line between regents trusting university leaders and simply having their heads in the sand. Just because they don’t see evidence of a problem right now doesn’t mean a problem doesn’t exist or might come to light in the future.

Although past and present Kansas University officials have some connection to the UNC case, this isn’t just about KU. Academic problems could occur at any of the state universities overseen by the Board of Regents. (The UNC case proves it only takes a couple of people to create a widespread scandal.)

Hopefully the Kansas regents’ faith in everyone involved in state university academic and athletic programs is well-placed, but, as the UNC case shows, it’s what officials don’t know that can some back to bite them.