Minnesota Cheats Face Action
Seventeen current and former Minnesota athletes and four faculty members face possible discipline for their involvement in the men's basketball cheating scandal, university provost Robert Bruininks said Thursday.
The four-member committee acted after reviewing a 1,000-page investigators' report and 1,500 pages of exhibits that released in November. The report found "systematic, widespread academic misconduct" in the program between 1993 and 1998.
The committee referred the cases to eight colleges for judicial review.
A referral indicates enough possible wrongdoing for the colleges to consider penalties. Each college has its own system for judging and disciplining academic misconduct, but generally, all follow university rules against cheating, Bruininks told the Saint Paul Pioneer Press in Thursday's editions.
Students found culpable could be required to make up work, or lose a grade and the credits that go with it, Bruininks said. If credits are lost in a required class, graduation could be affected.
Few of the student-athletes linked to the fall investigative report are still in school. Those who could be affected most are Ryan Wolf, Jason Stanford and Antoine Broxsie.
Wolf is the only player involved who has been graduated. Stanford, a former player still enrolled at Minnesota, is on track to graduate this spring. Broxsie, who has athletic eligibility remaining, transferred to Oklahoma State last year.
For faculty, penalties would range from a letter of reprimand to a close monitoring of work.
The report found "routine writing of assignments, papers and exams" for at least 18 players and "repeated manipulation of the university's academic policies and procedures" to keep students eligible to compete. Each year from 1994-95 through 1998-99, the men's basketball team competed with at least one student-athlete who received "improper" academic help and as a result was ineligible.
The university sanctioned its basketball program last year and said more self-sanctions could be pending. The NCAA is expected to rule this spring on further sanctions.
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