Operation Varsity Blues

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Duck07
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Operation Varsity Blues

Post by Duck07 »

So now I know why my cousin never got into USC even though he ended up at a school on the east coast with an actual Sailing Scholarship and placed on the podium numerous times and won several outright.

https://www.oregonlive.com/sports/2019/ ... andal.html

We have certainly seen a number of celebrity children who also played football/basketball who would take recruiting trips and we'd all ask "is he actually any good?" over the years and it was the "athlete" angle that triggered this.
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greenyellow
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Re: Operation Varsity Blues

Post by greenyellow »

Biggest names involved so far are Felicity Huffman (former star of Desperate Housewives and wife of Shameless star William H. Macy) and Lori Loughlin (Aunt Becky from Full House and Fuller House.)
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lukeyrid13
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Re: Operation Varsity Blues

Post by lukeyrid13 »

Interesting story.

It shows the slippery slope of the NCAA though, they bribed coaches which is/was illegal. However if they donated directly to the school, they’d have gotten their kids in the same and been fine.

Are the coaches wrong for taking the money, yes. On the flip side, it’s ridiculous that a school like Harvard can accept donations for an unqualified child of a rich donor and get them in through admissions. Meanwhile average folks are spending 150k for four years of the same product.
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StevensTechU
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Re: Operation Varsity Blues

Post by StevensTechU »

I was initially thinking "Is this a good use of resources?" and quickly did an about-face and thought "Hell yes it is. White collar crime needs to be persecuted as fervently as blue collar."
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EncinitasDuck
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Re: Operation Varsity Blues

Post by EncinitasDuck »

StevensTechU wrote:I was initially thinking "Is this a good use of resources?" and quickly did an about-face and thought "Hell yes it is. White collar crime needs to be persecuted as fervently as blue collar."
Pretty sure you meant we should "prosecute" them, not "persecute" them. Quite different meanings.

I agree they should be prosecuted. But what will the punishment be? Imprisonment? Do we really want to spend $40k - $80k (depending on what stats you use and locality) annually to keep them in prison? Do we fine the hell out of them? The rich (in the case of the parents) won't care about a fine of the size that a court would/could levy on a crime like this. If found guilty I'd personally like to see them sentenced to hundreds of hours of some type of community service or have them make a significant donation to a worthy charity (like a scholarship fund for low income students). And then there's the people that falsified the records. What shall we do with them? Surely they will be fired and I would think they will have difficulty finding another similar or any position elsewhere. Is that punishment enough? This is where our legal system gets tricky.
Bighonkingduck
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Re: Operation Varsity Blues

Post by Bighonkingduck »

Make them pay for their own incarceration!
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EncinitasDuck
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Re: Operation Varsity Blues

Post by EncinitasDuck »

Bighonkingduck wrote:Make them pay for their own incarceration!
Love it!!!
alxtw
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Re: Operation Varsity Blues

Post by alxtw »

USC isn't even that difficult to get into if you are willing to pay full tuition. Same as NYU.
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Phalanx
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Re: Operation Varsity Blues

Post by Phalanx »

As much as I like seeing entitled actors and their system of nepotism get exposed, I don't think Aunt Becky should go to prison for being a sucker. It seems like the people who put themselves in a position to offer these 'crew scholarships', etc. are the real criminals. Of course, the law can't come down too hard on them, since what they did is basically how our government and big business work on a daily basis. In the end, the worst thing that can happen to these folks is exactly what did happen: they were made the conversation piece du jour on social media, and it will take a long time for them to live it down.
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FlDuckFan
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Re: Operation Varsity Blues

Post by FlDuckFan »

So the only issue is that these kids weren't actually good at the sports they claimed scholarships in?
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StevensTechU
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Re: Operation Varsity Blues

Post by StevensTechU »

FlDuckFan wrote:So the only issue is that these kids weren't actually good at the sports they claimed scholarships in?
It's that they got into schools they didn't earn.
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duckduckgoose
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Re: Operation Varsity Blues

Post by duckduckgoose »

StevensTechU wrote:
FlDuckFan wrote:So the only issue is that these kids weren't actually good at the sports they claimed scholarships in?
It's that they got into schools they didn't earn.
How is this any different than rich guys buying a wing of the new business school building or having legacy enrollments?


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lukeyrid13
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Re: Operation Varsity Blues

Post by lukeyrid13 »

duckduckgoose wrote:
StevensTechU wrote:
FlDuckFan wrote:So the only issue is that these kids weren't actually good at the sports they claimed scholarships in?
It's that they got into schools they didn't earn.
How is this any different than rich guys buying a wing of the new business school building or having legacy enrollments?


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^ my thoughts exactly.
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greenyellow
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Re: Operation Varsity Blues

Post by greenyellow »

The main difference is that when someone donates a wing or upgraded buildings, it benefits more than a couple people while bribery benefits only those who pocketed the money.
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FlDuckFan
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Re: Operation Varsity Blues

Post by FlDuckFan »

How is it different than the loads of athletes who get scholarships when they can barely read?
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