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25 J. Legal Aspects Sport 75 (2015)
NCAA Academic Fraud Cases and Historical Consistency: A Comparative Content Analysis

handle is hein.journals/jlas25 and id is 72 raw text is: 





Journal of Legal Aspects of Sport, 2015, 25, 75-103
http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/las.2014-0021                    Human  Kinetics .N
@ 2015 Sport and Recreation Law Association                  ORIGINAL RESEARCH



        NCAA Academic Fraud Cases and

    Historical Consistency: A Comparative

                       Content Analysis


     Bradley   David   Ridpath,   Gerald   Gurney,   and  Eric  Snyder

     Academic fraud violations in NCAA Division I sports are considered to be major
     violations if institutional staff members knowingly are involved in providing
     fraudulent academic credit for athletes (NCAA, 2014). The purpose of this study
     is to perform a comparative content analysis of NCAA D-I football and men's
     basketball academic fraud cases since 1990 using similar sources as the NCAA
     in gathering information for investigations. The researchers focus on violations
     of Bylaw 10.1 (b) and compare with similar academic fraud allegations not
     documented within the NCAA's Legislative Services Database (LSDBi). Find-
     ings indicate the most common forms of academic fraud include providing exam
     answers and/or writing assignments for athletes. Inconsistencies exist regarding the
     following: disassociation periods for individuals, accrediting letters, institutional
     probation, informing future athletes of sanctions, and paying of fines. As such, it
     can be inferred that the NCAA may use Fletcher's Theory of Situational Ethics
     in its decision making.

     Intercollegiate athletics has a unique place in American history (Crowley,
2006.; Falla, 1983). Oftentimes, the spectacle of commercialized college sports
along with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and its member
institutions, have been accused of overwhelming the university and diverting its
mission of academic primacy (Sack, 2008; Splitt, 2002). The pressure to win games,
garner elite prospective athletes, maintain the eligibility and retention of athletes,
and generate revenue, ostensibly to benefit the university is frequently used as an
impetus to engage in academic fraud and misconduct at the expense of institutional
integrity (Marsh, 2014; Ridpath, 2010; Sack, 2008; Sack & Staurowsky, 1998).
    Outside of athletic pressures, institutional employees and the general public
often coincide with the belief that intercollegiate athletics are the front porch of
the university and its existence drives enrollment, branding, and more meaningful
alumni relations. As a result, athletics are the first attribute of the university that the
public often notices or what they are most familiar with concerning a given institu-
tion (Nixon, 2014; Pratt, 2013; Ridpath, 2010; Suggs, 2003). Another result is the
perceived notion that having an NCAA  Division I athletics department will result
in economic benefit for the institution. This economic benefit, if it exists, is largely

Ridpath (ridpath@ohio.edu) is with the Dept. of Sports Management, Ohio University, Athens, OH.
Gurney and Snyder are with the Dept. of Education, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK.


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