About the briberies of sport officials at the universities

[question everything]

The reports mention kids who were not members of any sport teams getting accepted by the sport officials at universities. But, once there, was it not apparent that they did not participate in any of these activities where, supposedly, excelled while in high school?

[MineralMan]

1. The only people who would be concerned about that would

be the very sports people who were involved, really. Those students didn't get scholarships for any sport, and their non-participation wouldn't be of interest except to the people who cheated or took money to add them to the recruiting roster.

So, once they got into the school, it wasn't an issue.

[question everything]

10. The schools really should audit the sport departments

Long over due. With coaches making millions while "adjunct professors" barely $25,000, it is an embarrassment.

Any student who got in based on athletic achievements should be followed to see how well they perform.

[MineralMan]

11. Too much work for too little benefit, I think.

I think this admissions scandal is probably just the tip of a very large iceberg. I'm just as glad I went to a state college nobody cares about. It worked out fine.

[rufus dog]

2. Claim injury prior to attending

Easy.

Unfortunately this really happens. A pitcher injures arm summer before fall semester. You have been admitted, just can't perform. Often the scholarship is lost. Football/Basketball players with knee injuries. Not at all uncommon.

In the case of these people, the scholarship wasn't the prize, the admission was the only goal.

[Stallion]

3. I Think They are Saying that Recruited Athletes were Being Considered Under Lower NCAA Standards

most schools-not all-that compete in Division 1A athletics admit most student athletes who meet lower NCAA admission standards that might be hundreds of points lower on SAT/ACT equivalency than the general student profile. So these prospective student/athletes were being considered under lower admission standards. BTW the NCAA has a Clearinghouse that often rejects student SAT/ACT scores for unusual improvement and/or cheating. That is run by NCAA not the schools themselves. Students need to meet both standards but generally the NCAA standards are really low. Its on a sliding scale in conjunction with GPA but an SAT score of 820 would meet the admission standards with an average GPA. The higher the GPA the lower the required SAT down to even say 650 if the student manufactured a bogus higher GPA which is another way Coaches get kids into schools. If you pay attention you see all kinds of academically marginal athletes transfer in their Junior and Senior year to a diploma mill prep schools where they can manufacture a higher GPA so they need a lower SAT on the sliding scale. In Dallas all the superstar Basketball recruits started attending Deion Sanders Prime Prep which was a school for dumb jocks. The NCAA finally decertified Prime Prep and invalidated most of the GPA credits earned at that school.

[d_r]

7. Hargrave military academy

[MaryMagdaline]

4. There was no scholarship just admissions

Parents were paying full price. What was stolen was someone else’s slot, who would not have support from athletic department. Admissions should still notice if an inordinate number of athletes drop off.

[ChicagoRonin]

5. Makes me think of actor Tommy Lee Jones

Mainly because he is the opposite of all of these spoiled-ass rich kids.

If I recall correctly, he had working class parents growing up in Texas.
He got a needs-based scholarship to Harvard and he excelled there. Got and English degree AND played football for a famed award-winning season. Also was roommates with future VP Al Gore.

He's a case study of why smart, motivated people without means should be given a chance to shine at the elite school level.

[Stallion]

12. He Went to the Best High School in the Southwest

my alma mater St. Mark's School of Texas (Dallas)! Its a very privileged, elite college prep school. Also produced the Wilson brothers (actors), Steve Miller, Boz Scaggs, Kurt Eichenwald, Ross Perot, Jr, the entire Hunt clan (Lamar, Clark etc of NFL ownership fame) to name a few (but also produced white supremacist Richard Spencer unfortunately)

[ChicagoRonin]

14. Really, that's interesting?

Do they have a scholarship program? From what I know of Jones' background, I think his dad was an oil field worker and mom a former police officer. That lineup of alumni is pretty impressive.

[Stallion]

15. They Did a Have Boarder Program that Housed about 15-20 Kids

when I went there was 1971-76-maybe he was one. Plenty of scholarship money too

*Wikipedia says he was on scholarship and now serves on the Board of Directors

[Princess Turandot]

6. This same question was asked by several of the prospective bribers..

.. in the 205 page complaint.

What I gleaned from the head fraudster vague explanation was that there was no follow-up by the universities' admissions people on these supposed talented athletes once they were actually enrolled. (I assume that part of that may have been the absence of scholarship moola.) The athletics departments are given a set number of admissions slots for them to use for students they want to recruit. The crooked director would present a 'vetted' package on the student's sports qualification (prepared by the fraudster's staff person) and ask that the applicant be counted against one of those slot. That more or less made it a done deal in most cases.

They seemed to often use sports which weren't huge draws at a school, which probably helped. In some cases, they used a sport's specialty position which didn't see much action, such as a football kicker or punt specialist. They often claimed the applicant was participating in a club league of a sport, which takes place away from the high school setting, so the high school would have no reason to know about what the person was doing extracurricular-wise.

I would've thought that the administration would have at least been interested in knowing how many of the offers were accepted, and how successful those recruits were. On the other hand, sports programs at many schools is a law unto itself, with no great oversight by the general university unless a big frigging problem arose.

[dalton99a]

8. UT Austin case:

On Feb. 27, 2015, the student's father made a stock donation of $455,194 to the cooperating witness's company based in California. Center notified the student's father on March 2, 2015, and told him that UT would be sending a letter of intent for a partial scholarship covering books.

UT awarded the scholarship on April 13, 2015, and a signed letter of intent was returned a few days later.

On April 22, 2015, an employee for the cooperating witness purchased a cashier's check for $25,000 made payable to "Texas Athletics," the affidavit states. The witness told investigators he flew to Austin in June 2015 and paid Center $60,000 "in a hotel parking lot."

Around the time the student started classes, on Sept. 4, 2015, he voluntarily withdrew from the tennis team, renounced his books scholarship and remained enrolled at UT.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2019/03/12/celebrities-wealthy-parents-charged-bribery-get-students-elite-schools-including-ut

[Wellstone ruled]

9. This being accepted as

a non Scholarship would be considered a possible Walk On. And if they did not show,no big deal.

[Awsi Dooger]

13. USC fired many athletic department employees including legendary water polo coach

Jovan Vavic won 16 national championships between men's and women's and had been called the John Wooden of water polo.

Now gone and in reading the reports it's obvious he was fully involved. He even had fraudulent scholarships for his kids to attend private schools but they weren't scholarships at all. He accepted the bribe money and those bribe payments were posed as scholarships.