Report: West Point cheating scandal involves 24 football players
First, it was depressing when a 9-2 Army team was not invited to a bowl game. Now, with the Cadets prepping for the Liberty Bowl, comes more woeful news. According to a USA Today report, two dozen of the people involved in the cheating scandal at West Point are football players.
Overall, 55 of the 73 involved are athletes at Army, per the report.
In all, 55 of the 73 cadets accused of cheating on a calculus final exam in May are athletes, including 17 who remain on the football team, USA TODAY has learned.
A few have played in football games this season after having been accused of cheating. Some of those players could dress and play in the Liberty Bowl on Thursday, according to Army Lt. Col. Christopher Ophardt, a West Point spokesman.
They’re allowed to play because West Point’s superintendent in October suspended a policy that limited or prevented cadets found in violation of the academy’s honor code from representing the academy in public, including athletes at sports events.
Under the suspended policy, most of the cadets would not have been eligible to play after Nov. 30, the date they were found in violation of the honor code, Ophardt said. The academy is not naming the cadets. Their punishment will be finalized in January.
“These Cadets chose the easier wrong over the harder right,” superintendent and Lt. Gen. Darryl Williams wrote. “As the Superintendent, I own this cheating incident. Furthermore, I and every leader at West Point own their role in developing leaders of character. The standards established by the Cadet Honor Code have not changed and the Honor System receives my personal investment of time and attention. West Point takes every Honor Code violation seriously.”
