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The Unwilling Accomplice:
Independent Study
and Intercollegiate Athletics
Von Pittman, Director
Center for Distance and Independent Study
University of Missouri-Columbia
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Not just “war stories”
• Academic fraud
• University employees, often of respected
institutions
• Stories with “legs”
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Access to Abuse
(Good Things Made Bad)
•
•
•
•
•
Open to all; admission not required
Flexible schedules
Exams at your convenience
Misuse of authority
Proctor falsification
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An Early Case:
Arizona State University
1981:
• Eight football players suspended for earning “bogus
credits”
• ASU administration decreed that athletes could not
count correspondence courses under “academic
progress” rules
I want ASU to “fly above the trees” when it comes to
its student athletes.
—Marion Jennings, Faculty Athletic Representative
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Southeastern College
(Now Southeastern University)
•
•
•
•
•
Assemblies of God
Lakeland, Florida
1,200 Students
Dress code
Daily chapel attendance
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Southeastern College
(Vulnerable Areas)
Cheating cannot be tolerated.
—Southeastern College Handbook
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Southeastern College
(Vulnerable Areas)
• Correspondence program
– Mainly for missionaries, their children,
prospective missionaries
– Any number of courses simultaneously
– No minimum time limits
– Poor exam security, based on trust
– Any licensed teacher could proctor
– Rarely changed exams
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1983: Proposition 48
• Pushed up the limits of eligibility
(complicated)
• Marginal students could accept athletic
scholarships, but were ineligible to play
until they had established a decent GPA
• Many prospects went to JUCOs, often
under the informal guidance of coaches at
NCAA-level universities and colleges
• Most often basketball
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Fantastic Finishers
• JUCO cleared high school diploma
problem
• Independent study accelerated JUCO
degree
• Done carefully, with required hours for
progress toward a degree, can set up
two seasons
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Fantastic Finishers
• Using independent study, in as little as
six weeks
– Final 18 hours
– Associate’s degree (took care of high
school diploma problem)
– NCAA eligibility
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Word Got Around
• Coaches’ networks (started about 1990)
• Exam files faxed from coach to coach
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Word Got Around
So many people were talking about it
[Southeastern College] that you couldn’t
remember the first person who told you.
—Mark Adams,
Assistant Basketball Coach,
Texas Pan-American University
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Bad News Bears
• SWC investigated cheating
• NCAA became involved, found:
A series of significant, intentional, and
egregious violations of NCAA regulations
that strike at the heart of intercollegiate
athletics.
—Baylor University Public Infractions Report (NCAA)
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Bad News Bears
The NCAA investigation found that coaches
had:
• Arranged for fraudulent credit
• Assisted prospects in enrolling in
correspondence courses
• “Provided them with impermissible
assistance with the course work”
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Bad News Bears
Results:
• Three assistant coaches fired or forced out
• Head coach Darrell Johnson’s contract
terminated
• Assistant and head coaches indicted for:
– Mail fraud
– Wire fraud
– Conspiracy
• May 1995, head coach acquitted, assistant
coaches convicted
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Casting a Wide Net
By Fall 1995, NCAA had:
• Requested transcripts from players at 75
colleges who had enrolled in Southeastern
College courses, then
• Opened investigations at 47 schools
• Focused on about 20 student-athletes still
eligible
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New Mexico State University
Internal Review
• An NMSU committee identified ten
basketball players and prospects who
had taken Southeastern
correspondence courses
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New Mexico State University
Example: One student, Paul Jarrett,
could not explain:
• Exam answer sheet not in his handwriting
• Missed exactly the same problems as two
other basketball players seeking eligibility
• Proctor forms not signed by the same
person who actually supervised exams
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New Mexico State University
• Coach Chris Nordquist admitted forging
another coach’s name; said he did so at the
direction of Gar Forman, another assistant
coach
• Another proctor lived in Chicago; her story
didn’t hold up; player Keith Johnson was
immediately ruled ineligible
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New Mexico State University
Consequences:
• Head coach Neil McCarthy reprimanded for not
exercising due oversight and control
• Assistant coach Chris Nordquist forced out
• Assistant coach Gar Forman had already moved
to staff of Iowa State University
– Forman later investigated by NCAA, lawyered-up and
shut-up, grudgingly cleared
– Now Director of Player Personnel, Chicago Bulls
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Surprised Student-Athletes
• Student-athletes with no prior knowledge
of enrollment
– Case of Stephen Gaines, Texas Tech: coach
enrolled him in Southeastern correspondence
courses without his knowledge; Gaines filed
RICO suit against Texas Tech, Spike Dykes,
and two assistants; U.S. District Court threw
most of the case out
– Similar case at Baylor
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Southeastern College:
The Unwilling Accomplice
• 1993, demand peaked, 1,000 coaches
called Southeastern
• “They might not have been easy classes,
but they were easy to cheat on.”
—Ed Darnell, Attorney for Gar Forman
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Southeastern College:
The Unwilling Accomplice
• NCAA, press affirmed Southeastern’s innocence
• Cooperated to a point (release of records,
FERPA)
• We are a Christian school. We were totally
uninformed about the kind of cut-throat methods
of the schools that were out there.
—Margaret Hennesy, Director of College Relations
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Southeastern College:
The Unwilling Accomplice
• Calls didn’t stop after exposure
• 1996, announced closure of distance
education program
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University of Nevada,
Las Vegas
No player will ever
embarrass this university.
Ever.
—Rollie Massamino,
April Fool’s Day, 1992
Jerry Tarkanian
• Good-bye Tark (the Shark)
• Hello, Rollie!
Rollie Massamino
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University of Nevada,
Las Vegas
J.R. Rider (second-leading scorer in
Division I, 1992)
• Earned only nine hours in 1991–1992
• Needed 15 summer hours to be eligible for
1992–1993
• Assistant coach Tom Pecora, compliance
officer Jaina Preston, and Massamino put
together a schedule, including English 102,
by correspondence
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University of Nevada,
Las Vegas
Vicki Bertolino
• Claimed constant pressure from Preston and
Pecora, who denied
• “Is J.R. going to pass?”
• While husband was in hospital, recovering from
heart attack
• Finally gave in (C-) although Rider never turned
in all work
• His first name—Isiah—was misspelled on three
papers
• A tutor admitted writing papers, from Rider’s
“dictation”
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Hold That Tiger
• From halfway house to
Graybar Hotel (60 days),
Summer 2003, felony
domestic assault
• “This call is being recorded”
– Trouble for the president
– Trouble for the coach
• In conversations, admitted
to having taken payments
• Girlfriend’s deposition
reinforced story
• Notoriety raised questions
about Clemons’ admission
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Ricky Clemons
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Path of a Scholar-Athlete
• No high school diploma
• College of Southern Idaho
• “A Summer Place”: Barton County
(Kansas) Community College
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Path of a Scholar-Athlete
• The fantastic finish
– Barton County, 12 summer hours
– Adams State College (Colorado), 3
correspondence hours
– Brigham Young University, 9
correspondence hours
– Total: 24 hours
• Admitted to University of MissouriColumbia, Fall 2002
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“Curiouser and Curiouser”
Deposition, March 2003:
• Boone County (MO) Prosecutor Kevin Crane: How did
Clemons come to be enrolled at Barton County
Community College?
• Coach Quin Snyder: I think it was a joint effort between
Southern Idaho coaches, the Barton County coach, and
you know, us obviously giving it our blessing that it would
be a good place for him to go. Because at that point
when he’s short of credits for graduation—we knew that.
• All this was for an athlete who would never suit up (nor
was he expected to) for Barton County’s team
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End of a Summer Place
• Clemons just the tip of the iceberg
• The coaches at Barton were in the business
of providing fraudulent eligibility and funding
players in the process
• Seven coaches and the athletic director
either pled guilty or were convicted on federal
fraud charges, up to a year in prison
• President fired
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The Barton County Plan
• Find courses that require no exams
– Adams State College’s Communications Arts
II, taught students to write papers—no final
exam required
I work on total trust.
—Koos Daley, Professor of English, Adams
State College
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The Barton County Plan
• Find courses with exams that can be beat; until
the Clemons case, BYU allowed coaches to serve
as proctors
– BYU investigated
– Announced proctoring at Barton had been
satisfactory (later proven otherwise)
– Banned coaches thereafter anyhow
For them (BYU) to get hoodwinked shows just
how hard it is to prevent cheating.
—John Krutoch, Utah Valley State College
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Nicholls State University
Thibodaux, LA
• 2004, registrar’s office discovered that
more than 20 football players (of 90) were
enrolled in an “Internet-assisted
correspondence course” from BYU
• An assistant coach had completed the
course work for all of them
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Nicholls State University
Thibodaux, LA
• President Steven T. Hulbert cleaned
house—he fired the head coach for having
20 players on the squad who were
academically deficient
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Meanwhile, Back in Utah…
2006:
For the last two or three years we’ve seen a
number of transcripts with one or two or three
hours from BYU correspondence courses.
—Wayne Baker, Executive Director, National Junior
College Athletic Association
There is clearly a rapidly moving coaches’
grapevine. And that grapevine identified BYU as
a good place to cheat.
—David Price, Vice President for Enforcement
Services, NCAA
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Brigham Young University
I think our reputation brings a lot of people to us,
and unfortunately, some of those people do
things they shouldn’t do.
—Richard Eddy,
Dean of Continuing Education, BYU
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Brigham Young University
As a result:
College athletes from schools other than BYU are
not allowed to enroll in BYU independent study
courses. This restriction applies to students who
are currently eligible as well as those seeking
eligibility to participate in any collegiate athletic
programs (e.g., NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA).
—Secure enrollment form, BYU Independent Study
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Dontae Jones, Overachiever
The Best of the Fantastic Finishers!
Summer 1995:
•
Northeast Mississippi Community College: 23 S/H
•
University of Southern Mississippi (independent study): 13 S/H
•
Total: 36 S/H
1995–1996 Season:
•
MSU Bulldogs won SEC Tournament
•
MSU Bulldogs advanced to final four
•
MVP of SEC Tourney & SE Regional Tourney
1996–1997:
•
NBA (Boston Celtics)
1998:
•
Northeast Mississippi Community College professor Peggy
Wroten won suit against her former employee. Claims she was
fired for refusing to change a grade and criticizing school’s special
treatment of Jones
•
SEC enacted “Dantae Jones Rule”: Final three semesters (before
admission) must be at the same school
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The Case of Fletcher Cockrell
1991:
• Texas A&M fired head basketball coach
Kermit Davis and assistant Fletcher
Cockrell for recruiting violations
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The Case of Fletcher Cockrell
1996:
• Head coach at Jones County Community
College, Ellisville, Mississippi
• Jones County basketball players Louis
Richardson and Antoine Hubbard signed
letters of intent with NMSU
• Two months later, NMSU head coach Neil
McCarthy hired Cockrell as assistant
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The Case of Fletcher Cockrell
1997:
• NMSU fired McCarthy, he sued; deposition
revealed:
– Promise of job to Cockrell
– Cockrell had arranged correspondence
courses for Richardson and Hubbard,
others did work
– Cockrell fired, sued, lost
– NCAA ten-year “show cause” order
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Current NCAA Legislation
14.1.8.2.6 Correspondence Courses.
A student-athlete may not use a
correspondence course to meet the minimum
12-hour enrollment requirement.
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Current NCAA Legislation
14.4.3.3 Correspondence and Extension
Courses from Another Institution.
Correspondence, extension and credit-byexamination courses taken from an institution
other than the one in which a student-athlete
is enrolled as a full-time student shall not be
used in determining a student’s academic
standing or progress toward degree.
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Current NCAA Legislation
14.4.3.8 Distance-Learning Courses.
Credit hours earned via distance learning
may be used to meet all progress-towarddegree requirement provided: (a) Evaluation
of student’s work is conducted by the
appropriate academic authorities in
accordance with the institution’s established
academic policies; and (b) The course is
available to any student at the certifying
institution and is reflected on the certifying
institution’s transcript.
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Nearly two dozen Florida State
athletes from seven varsity
sports, including 15 on scholarship,
face punishment by the school and NCAA
for academic fraud…The violations stem
from cheating on online tests for a single,
unnamed class…School officials did not
identify any athletes, citing federal
confidentiality restrictions.
—USA Today, Thursday, September 27, 2007
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