When the FBI announced arrest warrants in relation to a case where rich parents were paying off colleges to accept their children, it was seen to only involve minor D1 sports. Water polo, track and field, rowing, etc. were among the typical white-collar sports involved, and it resulted in the arrests of well-known celebrities like Felicity Huffman. For sports like D1 basketball and football, they appeared to be getting away clean.
However, some of the more major sports may not be out of the woods just yet. The initial report didn’t feature any well-known names, but an article from Yahoo! Sports recently broke down two of the names that could cause a problem for major college athletics. Martin Fox and Luke Riddell are two individuals who could prove to be a problem for schools everywhere, especially Riddell.
In terms of the FBI report, Riddell was apparently taking SAT’s for the bribed students so they could enter university with a score that he manufactured. This goes deeper, however, when you consider Riddell’s day job at IMG Academy, a well-known pro sports factory High School based in Bradenton, Florida.
Via Pat Forde, Pete Thamel and Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports:
The problematic part for college athletics is Riddell’s day job: director of college entrance exam prep at IMG Academy in Florida, the school which churns out scores of college recruits in nearly every sport, including elite players in football, basketball and baseball.
If Riddell was willing and able to fix standardized tests for some people, would he fix them for all people, namely students he was preparing for the exams who might need a specific score to qualify for a scholarship? IMG Academy announced Tuesday it had suspended Riddell indefinitely and launched an investigation into the matter.
It would surprise no one if the NCAA launched its own investigation into Riddell.
These pro sports factories aren’t uncommon, and they’re meant to try and help athletes through a more streamlined process to the pros, but they aren’t supposed to help them cheat their way there. With Riddell being linked to IMG Academy, this could turn into a massive scandal that not only involves IMG Academy but the schools that were recruiting their students, as well as the NCAA itself. It begs the question of who knew what and when and how much.
Some of IMG Academy’s more notable alumni include Jonathan Isaac, Michael Beasley, Bo Scarborough, Deondre Francios, and Joey Votto. Most of their well known alum are pros now, but many of their former athletes attended major programs such as Alabama, Florida State, and Duke. Depending on how much these schools know of factors such as their SAT scores, this could turn into a full-fledged scandal. We already know certain members of universities like Stanford and USC were allowing students acceptance on bogus applications for programs they didn’t even take part in. It’s not a stretch to wonder if there were schools taking advantage of the same thing in order to recruit athletes.
Of course, this all depends on how much information is gleaned out of the FBI investigation. Nobody at the universities is going to admit to accepting students with falsified scores, but they could also just be none the wiser. Ridell is a member of IMG Academy, not these universities. It’s also worth noting that, just because some students were having their scores falsified, it does not mean they were taking part voluntarily, that someone was taking part in changing their scores, or that every student from IMG Academy took part in it. It’s a continuing investigation, and the only thing clear about Ridell’s role so far is that he was the one falsifying the test results.
Singer’s ability to corrupt the test site administrators in Houston and West Hollywood, California, meant Riddell could allegedly pose as “proctor” for the exam and either take the test for a paying student or just collect their tests and then correct them later. Each student was required to be diagnosed with a learning disability by a doctor and thus eligible for an untimed test, often taken over two days. On some occasions, the student didn’t even know Riddell was changing their answers and fixing the score, according to federal prosecutors.
This could be minor. It could be massive. It will depend on the results of the investigation as it continues and what the FBI, IMG Academy, and most likely the NCAA eventually find.
