Diploma mills have long been criticized for their lack of accreditation, but now a regional accrediting association has itself come under scrutiny.

The Middle States Commission on Higher Education, headquartered in Philadelphia, nominally accredits colleges and universities located in Washington, D. C. and in Middle Atlantic States north to New York.

Problems with Middle States began in 1981, when it accredited a small, for-profit business college in Washington, D. C. That college subsequently relocated to Arlington, Virginia, and quickly opened branch campuses throughout the southeastern states, including Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Florida. The institution renamed itself a university, and downgraded its original Washington, D. C. location to merely one of its 43 branch campuses.

The states in which the university expanded, however, are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), not by Middle Atlantic. Nevertheless, the original 1981 accreditation of a small business college has been stretched like a rubber band to cover 27,000 online and on-campus students in 10 states.

Some educators have argued that SACS would never accredit this new university because of the following: