Academic Fraud Scandal Summary

To better understand the original question put forth, we must first define a few key terms. The NCAA is the National Collegiate Athletics Association. The NCAA has the final ruling in all matters of conduct in college sports. In short, it controls almost every aspect of athletics in college sports. The word sanction means: to

In 1995, several years after he stepped down as the NCAA’s executive director of 36 years, Walter Byers published Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting College Athletes. The title didn’t belie the book’s content. Among Byers’ confessions was the deception he sought in coining the well-worn phrase “student-athlete” to describe college athletes.

Penn State spent millions maybe billions in lawsuits, not only defending the college but paid out to victims as well. They lost contributions from Alumni’s; the university lost advertising deals, the support of major companies such as General Motors. The football program was sanctioned and could not participate in some of their games.

Taking risks because of a higher amount of optimism, not taking warnings seriously, and being accustomed to not arguing against views within the college all contributed to the Penn State Cover up. When officials had doubts or differing ideals from those of others at Penn State, they simply kept them to themselves by self-censorship. In fact, head coach Joe Paterno knew as far back as 1972 about his assistant coach Jerry Sandusky being involved in molestation allegations and never brought allegations to light ("Penn State Scandal Fast Facts - CNN.com," 2016). The Clergy act requires college universities to report crimes on campus and the Department of Education fined Penn State several million dollars for not reporting misconduct on campus citing that they disregarded multiple reports of sexual abuse of a child and therefore helped a long time sexual predator. Unfortunately, the culture in the college football world puts the highest priority on the game. This lead to major collective rationalization,

What exactly are NCAA violations? NCAA violations are what are enforced if any student athlete or even a coach commits a violation of the NCAA rules. The article “College Athletes and NCAA Violations” does a good job at summing up what exactly NCAA violations are. Jason Winfree, states that minimal violations happen all the time, but substantial violations almost are never committed (Winfree 2012). Stating that small violations shows that student athletes will be punished for some of the smallest things possible. Jason also includes that players will violate rules if it doesn’t violate what they believe (Winfree 2012) so if a student believes that the need for whatever violation they will be committing will be worth the time to commit than they will do it anyway. The article argues that the NCAA wants these rules in place to make sure that the students athletes sees themselves as students and not as

Everything was looking good for Joe Paterno and Penn State football as his football managing career rose with an overall record of 298-136-3 but in 2011, all that changed. Back in 2000 a janitor of Penn State witnessed Sandusky receiving oral sex from a young boy, the janitor reported what he saw to co-workers and his supervisor but none of these men reported these actions to authorities. It wasn’t until November 5, 2011 that Sandusky was arrested on a $100,000 bail and up to 40 criminal counts. ESPN were quickly in the scene to investigate and report the allegations on Sandusky. They quickly reported saying Sandusky was charged with more than 50 counts of child sex-abuse involving 10 boys he met through The Second

Although college football is the third-most-popular sport, the majority of schools lose revenue on athletics. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, also known as the NCAA, is promoting beneficial ideas to help players in need while increasing academic standards. As stated in the article, “On some LSU teams, Martin said, half of the players are “special admits””, which means multitudes of players do not achieve the same levels of academic success as “normal” students. As long as academic budgets are miniscule compared to athletic budgets, there will always be controversy. This tension increased when “legendary head coach” Joe Paterno, along with Jerry Sandusky, were fired for being involved in a sex-abuse scandal with a minor.

With the mounting number of victims, Larry Nassar was arraigned on Feb. 24 with 25 counts of sexual misconduct. Apparently, the doctor used his position as the official physician of the gymnasts with whom he molested under the guise of medical treatment.

As the rule went into effect, many high-school athletes were signing National Letters of Intend to attend a college or university to play a certain sport. This of course meant that these incoming freshmen would be guaranteed $2000, along with their scholarship without having played a single second at the institution. But soon college athletic directors and conference presidents started appealing the rule and within a month over 125 members had signed an “override request” because it was too expensive (Nocera 2). Nocera than begins to illustrate the concept of how college coaches and the school themselves, are being paid and making a great deal of money. The Ohio State University’s head football coach, Urban Meyers signed a deal in 2011, agreeing to make $24 million dollars in six years, and top-notch conferences are signing television sponsorship deals for upwards of $11 billion dollars for fourteen years (Nocera 2). While the players are dedicating countless hours on and off the playing field, and not being compensated, they see their coaches making millions of dollars. Imagine stepping out to the field and seeing over 80,000 fans coming to see you play, and you can’t make any profit off that. Nocera believes that it is a “system that enables misconduct to flourish” (Nocera 3). Another consequence is that players tend to violate many rules of the NCAA involving financial aid and receiving money. Notorious athletic programs including Penn State

underhanded activities that occur pervasively throughout the three collegiate divisions. Some such scandals have included the child sex charges brought against the Pennsylvania State University and overall academic misconduct amongst member colleges and universities. This is exactly where the current NCAA president, Mark Emmert is directing his focus: a return to a conservative adherence to the original mission statement, a strict disciplinary strategy against institutional scandals, and an overall modernization of the association. Emmett plans to emphasize leadership of the NCAA in order shift the association away from its capitalistic tendencies (bookshelf.vitalsource.com).

Powers, E. (2009). Academic Fraud Is Rampant in College Athletics. In C. Watkins, Sports and Athletes (pp. 79-86). Detroit: Greenhaven Press.

The FBI had stated that after conducting an investigation that these senior officials had known about Sandusky’s actions as early as 1998 and had failed to disclose this information to authorities. On October 9, 2012, Jerry Sandusky was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years and a maximum of 60 years in prison. Spanier, Curley, and Schultz have been charged with grand jury perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and child endangerment in association with the scandal. Paterno and McQueary never had any charges pressed on them because they did what they were obligated to do. McQueary had reported the incident to his superior which is Joe Paterno. Joe Paterno also reported the incident to his superior who is Curley and Schultz. This whole situation caused a huge reaction nationwide.

The child sex abuse scandal overall is a public relations disaster that the university is likely to be dealing with for years to come. I definitely don’t believe this case was

Despite the many stereotypes that are connected with being a student athlete, student athletes in general are held to much higher standards by their institutions. Before a prospective student athlete even enters college, they are made fully aware of the academic standings and requirements of the college they choose. Although the academic requirements vary from college to college, the standards are still held high for all student athletes. The transition into college can be exceptionally difficult especially for the

The criticism will have to be based on a school by school basis. I specifically know of a situation where my favorite football team, Notre Dame, had suspended their quarter back for violation of the honor code by cheating on a test, when it was most critical to keep him playing when Notre Dame was ranked #1 and going to the National Championships in 2012 who eventually were beaten for the title by Alabama. Notre Dame has a very strong honor code and strictly adheres to the code of ethics. Is it because the university is a Catholic school?? The university itself contacted the NCAA about the academic dishonesty of four of their players which resulted in the suspension of Everett Golson (QB). “The University is committed to thorough resolution of this matter, consistent with its commitment to academic integrity and adherence to NCAA rules," Father Jenkins said. In this case, it looks as though Notre Dame is based more on ethical values than that of the NCAA. Although they NCAA does have rules, regulations and punishments in place, they do not seem to attack ethical values head on than being more in