Those Notre Dame Rumors Just Got Real
This just went from a rumor that was everywhere on Notre Dame boards to a three-alarm fire. The rumor: four Notre Dame players were going to be suspended for the year for some variety of academic fraud. Precisely the four players rumored were just absent from Notre Dame practice:
A foursome of Notre Dame veterans was not seen leaving the Irish practice field Friday afternoon. Cornerback KeiVarae Russell, defensive end Ishaq Williams, linebacker Kendall Moore and wide receiver DaVaris Daniels were not among the players who exited the LaBar Practice Field Friday.
Notre Dame did not respond to questions about their absence.
And Pat Forde reports that ND is investigating some academic fraud:
Yahoo Sports sources: investigation into academic fraud underway at Notre Dame, football players (as well as regular students) part of probe
— Pat Forde (@YahooForde) August 15, 2014
That's Notre Dame's top corner (Russell), wide receiver (Daniels), and defensive end (Williams) plus a backup linebacker. Russell and Daniels were on track to get drafted after this season if they entered the draft early; Williams has been a bit of a disappointment after being a five-star recruit.
There were also rumors that ND was going to vacate their 2012 wins over this, which I don't buy since that actually matters to the Irish and UNC just got off scot free for a scandal which I'm just assuming is infinitely worse than whatever tempest in a teapot the Irish are flagellating themselves for.
UPDATE: Bruce Feldman confirms that all four players have been dismissed, whether temporarily or permanently.
UPDATE II (ACE): According to the South Bend Tribune, this could go beyond current players:
A source told the South Bend Tribune the scale of alleged fraud is comparable to the highly publicized case at the University of North Carolina and that a former player or players could be tied in as well.
Repeated attempts for comment and clarity from Notre Dame officials have gone unanswered.
The scope of this is growing by the minute, it seems.
UPDATE III: Notre Dame just released a statement on the matter.
Note: A news conference at 6 p.m. [ET] today will be streamed live on the University’s website, news.nd.edu, and the athletics website, www.und.com.
The University of Notre Dame is investigating suspected academic dishonesty on the part of several students, including four members of the football team. Because of the potential for NCAA violations, the University notified the NCAAtoday, and the four football players will be held out of practice and competition until the conclusion of an ongoing investigation and the University honor code process. Any possible academic dishonesty by other students will be addressed appropriately.
This part may also be relevant to your interests.
That investigation is ongoing. If it determines that the student-athletes would have been ineligible during past competition, Notre Dame will voluntarily vacate any victories in which they participated.
There's also a rumor going around that up to 22(!) current or former players could be involved; thus far that's uncorroborated, however.
August 15th, 2014 at 3:04 PM ^
+1 to you good sir.
August 15th, 2014 at 3:05 PM ^
ND did have a decent and deserved reputation for integrity; a massive academic scandal there would just show the continuing corruption of college sports, which no one should celebrate.
August 15th, 2014 at 3:09 PM ^
August 15th, 2014 at 3:12 PM ^
I remember when I really really really wanted Michigan to hire Brian Kelly. Heh heh
August 15th, 2014 at 3:20 PM ^
Brian's OP said UNC got of "scot free." That was true the first time. But the NCAA has since re-opened the investigation. So, although the NCAA usually ends up being all bark and no bite, UNC has not gotten off scot-free.
August 15th, 2014 at 3:21 PM ^
I'm a PhD student at Michigan, but I did my undergrad and master's at UNC.
What the hell do you think UNC got away scot free doing?
We vacated two years of wins, lost five scholarships a year for three years, took a one year bowl ban in the only year since 1980 we qualified as champion of anything (ACC Coastal). We dissociated from three future NFL players including the reigning defensive NFL MVP. Additionally, we fired the head coach, the AD resigned, and the Chancellor went down as well.
We have voluntarily raised the bar on our entry requirements, reducing the number of academic exceptions we grant the football team for entry into the university, and changed oversight of various functions of student assistance relating to the athletic department. Additionally, a department head and his assistant were indicted for fraudulently teaching lecture classes as independent studies.
All of this is for the following actual infractions:
Not monitoring twitter
Improper financial relationship between agents and an assistant coach
The aforementioned three future NFL players accepting cash/gifts from agents
Other players receiving impermissable benefits such as staying at a former player's apartment in NYC for free.
Impermissable aid from a tutor (who happened to be dating one of the players)
Additional problems uncovered in the probe which the NCAA did not believe warranted punishment:
The African and African-American studies department had been holding lecture classes as independent study classes for years. These classes, while embarassing, were open to athletes and non-athletes, and controlling for race, there's no evidence that athletes took advantage of these classes more frequently than non-athletes. There is also no evidence that the classes were in place at the behest of anyone related to the athletic department.
A football player who challenged his suspension in court was found to have plaigerized a paper that was central to his case.
Anything else you think you know about UNC is unsubstantiated crap put forth by Mary Willingham or Rashad McCants. Neither have had anyone verify any of their claims.
Willingham's conclusions regarding player literacy could not be verified by third-party experts.
Willingham lied on her IRB application to use athletes' learning disability test results for her "research."
Willingham mislead Outside the Lines when she implied that a paper she presented on camera was the only assignment submitted for a course by an athlete, and it had earned an A-.
Willingham plaigerized her masters thesis extensively.
All of McCants's teammates have said that his accusations do not reflect their experiences.
There was wrongdoing at UNC. Everything in the media recently, however, has been unverified hearsay from people who lack credibility.
UNC was punished for its wrongdoing, and UNC has changed the way it does things in order to address that wrongdoing.
I'm done listening to this crap.
August 15th, 2014 at 3:29 PM ^
for an excellent rant
August 15th, 2014 at 3:34 PM ^
but well-done. +1 to you, sir, for serving that rant up in a well-organized, factually-based manner. Welcome.
August 15th, 2014 at 3:38 PM ^
People say UNC got off because absolutely nothing happened to the men's basketball program which is the flagship athletic team for the university.
If you want to come across as rational, perhaps dismissing McCants out of hand isn't the best way to do it. Just because the guy was a malcontent doesn't take away from what he's saying. Mark Felt was a malcontent, that doesn't make Watergate not have happened.
August 15th, 2014 at 3:44 PM ^
Where's the proof? If all McCants has is his word, then I have the word of all of his teammates.
His credibility has been questioned by plenty of people without a dog in the fight. (e.g. Julius Hodge, Gregg Doyel)
August 15th, 2014 at 3:54 PM ^
I don't see why McCants would lie about it. I completely see why his teammates and Roy Williams would.
I think no sane, non-UNC fan, actually believes UNC basketball wasn't committing academic fraud. Whether the academic fraud is absolutely 100% provable according to such and such standard, reasonable people can disagree on. But to act like players weren't clearly being funnelled to paper classes with appallingly low standards, that a large precentage of UNC athletes aren't functionally illiterate -- again, a researcher not being willing to confirm a study they had no part in is not the same as that researcher disagreeing with the study's findings -- and that UNC football had all of these problems that in no way seeped over to UNC basketball is pretty much something one has to divorce themselves from reality to believe.
And I don't even dislike UNC, FTR.
August 15th, 2014 at 8:50 PM ^
McCants has long blamed Roy Williams for McCants' washing out of the NBA.
http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/26283066/27392866
I think it very much depends on what you mean by "UNC Basketball" committing academic fraud. I think that it's reasonable to say that UNC Basketball players were enrolled in fraudulent classes. However, it's important to note that neither the players, nor their advisors, were committing fraud. The players were completing papers for independent studies classes, and the advisors were informing the players which courses were easy and fit the players' schedules.
The point is that the fraud was on the part of the AFAM department head, who was fraudulently treating lecture courses as paper courses, and then assigning easy grades to all participants. While this is embarassing, absent a link to the athletic department, it is not an NCAA violation.
I absolutely, categorically and in no uncertain terms reject the idea that anyone was admitted to UNC and was functionally illiterate. You misunderstood me when I said that "Willingham's conclusions regarding player literacy could not be verified by third-party experts." I didn't mean that the experts refused to provide analysis, I meant that they were given Willingham's data and attempted to but could not replicate Willingham's findings. The absolute lowest reading level that any of them could estimate for any athlete was that of a fifth grader, and the sample included athletes who we know had learning disabilities including dyslexia.
I don't actually think that UNC basketball and football had some sort of wall of separation between them. I do think, however, that the media has painted a wildly inaccurate picture of what UNC found when it was subjected to (and aided in) a full scale investigation of its athletic department, and I think that's incredibly unfair.
Don't think that Michigan is the only school with a Drew Sharp.
August 18th, 2014 at 4:49 PM ^
On the extremely off chance you ever come back to this thread and see my days late response: how are you defining functional illiteracy? Someone who can read at a 5th grade reading level clearly cannot read to the level required to hold down virtually any professional job, which is basically the definition of functional illiteracy. (The 2009 Human Development Report says 1 in 5 Americans are functionally illiterate, for some perspective.)
August 15th, 2014 at 5:12 PM ^
August 15th, 2014 at 8:37 PM ^
Nor anywhere else, but at this point, I'll take it.
August 15th, 2014 at 3:43 PM ^
mentioned only since it was about academics
August 15th, 2014 at 3:46 PM ^
Touche, salesman.
In my defense, I typed that in an essentially stream-of-conciousness fashion in about 15 minutes. Looks pretty good through that lens, no?
August 15th, 2014 at 4:11 PM ^
"I'm so glad this academic scandal happened at UNC instead of Duke." --No one ever
August 15th, 2014 at 10:38 PM ^
August 15th, 2014 at 3:45 PM ^
I like our chances vs. ND a bit more, though I worry that they will rally around this adversity, type-thing.
August 15th, 2014 at 4:08 PM ^
I can't imagine there are many kids on ND's team who are taking calculus. If they are, they'd be taking it at whatever school they were at.
August 15th, 2014 at 5:40 PM ^
Say what you will about their coach, but they've got some smart sumbitches on that team. Like this dude who's an Aero Engineering major and a Rhodes Scholar candidate:
http://www.und.com/sports/m-hockey/mtt/mathieson_t.j.00.html
August 15th, 2014 at 11:07 PM ^
August 15th, 2014 at 5:43 PM ^
What will make things like this look so much worse in hindsight (IF anyone even cares about academics in college sports in the future) is that those schools which have basically given themselves a pass and received one from the NCAA are not written in history while OSU, PSU, and Notre Dame will be.
The SEC knows that only bad will come from the NCAA dishing out punishment and it is easier to fight and coverup a case when lying only has consequences for those with the most to lose (the athletes, coaches, and administrators). Whatever happened at Notre Dame is probably standard operating procedure for some top sports schools either currently or in the past but the moment any school exercises good conscience about protecting academic integrity or following the rules they have already screwed themselves.
August 15th, 2014 at 3:53 PM ^
August 15th, 2014 at 4:05 PM ^
The longer ND stands silent on the matter, the more I begin to think the scandal goes beyond four cheating players. If the matter stopped there, you'd think ND would just say it -- on a Friday -- in order to make it yesterday's news by Monday.
August 15th, 2014 at 4:13 PM ^
The latest reports (as tweeted by Ace) say as many as 22 current/former players. But why is it breaking now? This is supposedly dealing with issues back to 2012, right? And has been under investigation for several months/years, right? So now, right before the start of the football season they come to their conclusions. Really? I have no idea how the administration didn't really push on the investigators (or whomever) to get this wrapped up before the start of fall session so it wouldn't be a big issue at the start of the year/mid fall practice.
August 15th, 2014 at 4:45 PM ^
August 15th, 2014 at 4:56 PM ^
This is big time stuff right here.
August 15th, 2014 at 4:56 PM ^
This is big time stuff right here.
August 15th, 2014 at 4:57 PM ^
August 15th, 2014 at 5:15 PM ^
The written statement by ND says only that the players are being kept off the field pending the end of the investigation. It says the 4 players have not been dismissed from the school:
The University of Notre Dame is investigating suspected academic dishonesty on the part of several students, including four members of the football team. Because of the potential for NCAA violations, the University notified the NCAA today, and the four football players will be held out of practice and competition until the conclusion of an ongoing investigation and the University honor code process. Any possible academic dishonesty by other students will be addressed appropriately.
August 15th, 2014 at 6:35 PM ^
At some point, will Fox and Yahoo acknowledge their significant errors in reporting that all 4 players had been "dismissed" from the team? No, of course they won't. Because they're Fox and Yahoo.
August 15th, 2014 at 7:16 PM ^
Since the players haven't been suspended, I think it's fairly obvious that unless something is confirmed before the final game against ND, they will still play all the players in question because they will do anything it takes to win the game. I mean that's what the SEC would do, right?
August 15th, 2014 at 7:20 PM ^
August 15th, 2014 at 7:22 PM ^
August 15th, 2014 at 7:39 PM ^
August 15th, 2014 at 9:11 PM ^
Just win the game, fellas!
Last chance in a long time to whoop the fighting chickens.
Just win!
August 15th, 2014 at 9:07 PM ^
August 16th, 2014 at 9:54 AM ^
Where s is greater than or equal to one.
/s
August 16th, 2014 at 2:55 AM ^
To HELL with Notre Shame !!!
August 16th, 2014 at 11:07 PM ^
Academic fraud at ND doesn't surprise me at all. It never made much sense that they could bring in a bunch of players with sub-standard academic qualifications (relative to the rest of their student body), have them spend 30-some hours a week during the fall playing football and watching tape, and still have them somehow graduate at a 90% rate. That beggars belief.
August 16th, 2014 at 11:52 PM ^
August 17th, 2014 at 1:47 AM ^
Our graduation rates are generally something like 50-60% for football players, which is more realistic given their academic credentials coming in.
ND trying to pass off a 90% graduation rate has always looked dubious as hell.
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