January 5, 2008

Linebacker's Wife Says She Wrote His Papers

The wife of a star University of South Florida linebacker says she wrote his academic papers and took two online classes for him. The accusations against Ben Moffitt, who had been promoted by the university to the news media as a family man, were made in e-mail messages to The Tampa Tribune, and followed Mr. Moffitt’s filing for divorce.

Mr. Moffitt called the accusations “hearsay,” and a university spokesman said the matter was a “domestic issue.” If it is found that Mr. Moffitt committed academic fraud, the newspaper reported, the university could be subject to an NCAA investigation. —David L. Wheeler

Comments

1. Media orgs. should treat it as a family issue. It was done in spite….

   — Borde    Jan 6, 03:45 PM    #

2. No, Borde. She revealed it in spite. It was done to defraud academia and the NCAA. It is not a family issue

   — Comm Prof    Jan 7, 06:13 AM    #

3. “Hearsay”? That means his wife heard (from herself?) that she was writing his papers for him. I think the guy’s use of this word constitutes proof that he doesn’t do his own work!

   — Dagnat    Jan 7, 06:48 AM    #

4. My, aren’t we all quick to jump to conclusions and assign blame based on very limited information.

   — Bill    Jan 7, 06:53 AM    #

5. And, my, aren’t we all quick to defend athletics over academics based on that very same information….

   — Comm Prof    Jan 7, 08:13 AM    #

6. Clearly the only conclusion that can be drawn from this rather brief summary is that someone (USF, the NCAA, etc.) needs to investigate the allegations. But how can such allegations be proven true (or false) at this point? Interesting timing, however.

   — Techgirl    Jan 7, 08:38 AM    #

7. I do find it incredibly interesting that the wife reveals this information after this athlete files for divorce and just as he declares for the NFL. Sounds like she’ s looking to not get left out in the cold, and she should be.

   — teachesforfood    Jan 7, 09:26 AM    #

8. It would be easy to tell if she did the work through writing analysis. If the online courses track the participants’ log in times it would be easy to cross-reference that against the football schedule.

   — Ian G    Jan 7, 09:27 AM    #

9. Oh, My God! What a shocking disclosure. What ever happened to the strong ethical values held be students as recently as last year and throughout the decades before? Without doubt, no such thoughts ever entered a students’ mind in the past. Next we’ll have husbands assisting their wives; or worse yet, mother’s helping their sons and daughters. What explains this sudden and rapid decadence in academia?

   — Bill    Jan 7, 09:56 AM    #

10. Borde and Bill strike me as apologists for all Athletic Departments, and a bit naive. Comm Prof—the versa. Myself—a 30 year veteran…I’ll let the newspapers have their moment, the PR department take its hit, colleagues brave their sanctimony, and watch one more student—athlete or otherwise—be busted. Forget that—-I’ll finish my book.

    — History Professor    Jan 7, 10:04 AM    #

11. Suppose it’s true, not necessarily of this fellow, but of some kid, somewhere, a great ball player, but a lousy student. We’ve made it nearly impossible for him to get signed to any team without getting “tried out” in college first, since college is our “minor league” in football (and baseball and basketball leagues won’t sign 18-year-olds either, anymore). So he hooks up with a brainy wife who will see him through ‘til the NFL notices him.

    For a guy who really can’t cut it in college, the only “honest” option, in our crazy system, is to give up his sport, his singular talent, and get some menial dead end job.

    We require academic ability of our athletes, and then we get all upset and cry “fraud”? What if we required high level athletic ability from our intellectual prodigies? Then there wouldn’t be very many people making it through college without some kind of fraud.

    — swish    Jan 7, 10:06 AM    #

12. I hardly think that requiring someone to actually pass their classes equates to demanding high level academic ability. Now, if we required student athletes to have a 4.0, I could see the argument having some merit at that point. If we required that intellectual prodigies have some sort of nominal athletic skill, I’m sure most would make it through college.

    — JC    Jan 7, 10:27 AM    #

13. Buried in the Tampa Tribune story is the statement about the football scholarship helping to pay the mortgage. Is it customary for sports scholarships to provide that much, to go so far beyond the payment of tuition, fees, and books?

    I understand that college sports (football and basketball, mainly) serve as free farm teams to the professional leagues. I question the wisdom and value of paying so much.

    — wm    Jan 7, 11:33 AM    #

14. I am continually amazed by once-loving couples becoming such vindictive enemies. Can true love really become hate?

    — marci    Jan 7, 01:21 PM    #

15. Marci, marci, marci. I’m so happy that somebody still has romance in their values and sees past the cynicism to the heart of this story. You should be the one to write the academic Novel about this topic. And I also think that your post is the best, aside from my previous one.

    — Dagnat    Jan 7, 01:36 PM    #

16. I am contemplating setting up a whistle blower fund that would award any person including athletes, $10,000 for exposing a verifiable incident of illegal recruiting, academic fraud, payment under the table, betting, etc. My guess is a lot of disgruntled athletes have some interesting stories to tell. It seems that only a whistle blower program can expose the true depth of problems at the NCAA level. Letting the NCAA handle investigations of itself is not a prudent means of combating corruption in athletics.

    Please let me know your thoughts. My guess is ll I’ll $500k to fund this initiative, which is already available. I people think its a good idea, I will take the next step to determine what type of organization I need to set up to make this happen.

    — Activist    Jan 7, 01:37 PM    #

17. $500,000 for such a program? I dunno. You would have to pay that much at least for a top-notch team of investigators and their travel expenses. On top of that would be hundreds of thousands you would need for the whistleblower rewards.

    Another problem you would have is defining illegal cheating. Some NCAA rule violations even now are treated with a slap on the hand because the violations are simply not all that substantial, or because the institutions ‘fess up and report the violation themselves.

    — Fred    Jan 7, 02:14 PM    #

18. But, JC, why are we virtually forcing them to enroll in college in the first place? Sure, maybe most can at least pass without cheating, but why waste their time, and the profs’, if they don’t want to be there and are only doing it for the chance to pursue their career in sports? Is that really a good reason for a young person to attend college?

    — swish    Jan 7, 04:37 PM    #

19. no reason at all to attend college, assuming that their talent is as good as they think it is and they never get injured and all get signed to teams that pay them enough (and from which they save enough) to never work for the rest of their lives.

    — --n    Jan 7, 05:38 PM    #

20. Of course they won’t all get signed. But those who lack the exceptional talent to go pro will face reality a bit sooner, and have the opportunity to plan a realistic career path.

    Sure, I’d encourage anyone to go to college who is motivated and can truly benefit from it. I’d hope some athletes would consider their situations and and do just that. But a mediocre-to-poor transcript (with or without a degree) won’t give a person much of an edge over a person with four years of full-time work experience.

    — swish    Jan 8, 10:39 AM    #

21. This raises a more serious concern that I’ve had for some time, namely who is really completing the content for on-line courses? In the old days of face-to-face meetings we could assess our students based on participation, attendance and critical thinking, if our classes were not conducted in assembly halls with numbers that exceeded interaction opportunities.
    Now, it’s not only athletes that may submit papers and tests that are not their own, but the on-line tests could be completed by anyone, anywhere and at anytime.

    This is a very serious issue.

    — dr. v    Jan 8, 01:15 PM    #

22. When I was in college (many years ago) we would joke that the wife should receive a PhT degree: “Putting Hubby Through.” It’s been done for years, for athletes and lots of others, and it has always been dishonest and despicable.

    — Betty Stevens    Jan 8, 04:07 PM    #

23. What many of you are missing is that she did it (told on hubby) because he was going to dump her before going pro— so she couldn’t have access to his pro salary. Having been done wrong myself by a jerk lawyer exhusband… who postponed technically accepting an attorney position until the day after our suddenly filed and quickly finished divorce was entered (long story details not important), I applaud her. I scrimped and saved through three years of law school and one year of clerking only to end up with nothing. I hope she gets a HUGE percentage of his pro salary.

    — BB    Jan 8, 04:51 PM    #

24. I agree with BB-why should she have to toil for “their” good only to end up not benefiting from the fruits of her labor. There is truth in the saying, “Ain’t nothin’ like a woman scorned!”

    — RL    Jan 8, 05:25 PM    #

25. I would like to comment to #13

    Each sport has a certain amount of scholarships and can be divided however the coaches would like. If this player was getting a “full ride” then that would include payment for his tuition, fee, books, a meal card/plan for the on campus caf (which can prob be used at almost any restaurant near campus if its like any other university) and an addition check with money for the athlete to spend on things like food and rent/house payments. Now we don’t know how the bills got split up by the couple but I’m sure she had a job and paid bills and for food and then his scholarship check might have paid the house payments. There is nothing wrong with that! That’s what I did while I was in college on athletic scholarship. That’s what those checks are for. Now, if he spent it on rims or a home entertainment center, then I could understand, but they used it for what it was given for. When coaches look at the athletes parents during signing time and say we will make sure he is taken care of, that means food, shelter, and protection. And if a house payment is what he spent his scholarship check on, then so be it! Once again, that is what it is there for!

    — AP    Jan 9, 10:05 AM    #

26. I agree with #7 teachesforfood.
    Its amazing how nasty people become, and that they would display their personal issues just to get media attention. Divorce is a 2 way street, maybe she should look at her own side before calling him out. We also dont know the whole story and what is true or made up. Good luck to both of them.

    — GradStudent    Jan 9, 11:27 AM    #

27. We don’t know that the spousal unit hadn’t been threatening to get the divorce the day after he signed a big contract and take half (or more). Maybe he just got first licks.

    As a retired policeman who’s responded to hundreds of family disputes, I can categorically say women are not always the poor, pathetic victims they like to portray. Statistically, they are equally likely to be the batterers.

    — darrell in dallas    Jan 9, 12:08 PM    #

28. Having just taught my first online class I agree with the point that dr. V (#21) made. I have caught several students not doing their own work in my online class – one very stupidly. That student paid someone to write his paper, the person who wrote it sent it in the name of the wrong student… and the created by and last modified by under properties indicated that the person who created it was the same name as who e-mailed it via yahoo. So I went and checked this on other papers. Found 4 others with created by and last modified by using a different 4 by 4 log in than the one that belonged to the student…This is making its slow way through academic dishonesty channels (hopefully I won’t hang for reporting it). I HATE teaching intro on line classes!!!

    — anon    Jan 9, 03:50 PM    #

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