West Point cheating involved athletes

Among the cadets involved in the academy’s worst cheating scandal in 45 years are 24 football players, some of whom were set to play Thursday.

WASHINGTON – The majority of the cadets involved in the worst academic cheating scandal at West Point in 45 years are athletes, including 24 members of the football team scheduled to play in a bowl game Thursday, according to West Point officials.

In all, 55 of the 73 cadets accused of cheating on a calculus final exam in May are athletes, including 17 who remain on the football team, figures released to USA TODAY by West Point show.

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 against West Virginia, Army Lt. Col. Christopher Ophardt, a West Point spokesman, told USA TODAY. 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.

Lt. Gen. Darryl Williams, the superintendent, in an Oct. 23 memo, wrote to the faculty the policy “has resulted in an inequitable application of consequences and developmental opportunities for select groups of cadets.” USA TODAY obtained a copy of the memo.

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. Punishment will be finalized in January.

Williams has ordered a review of the policy. The timing of Williams’ decision was not related to the football season, Ophardt said. “We didn’t cancel the punishment,” Ophardt said. “We delayed it until final adjudication.”

In a letter to faculty, staff and alumni Wednesday, a copy of which was sent to

USA TODAY, Williams attributed the incident in part to the COVID- 19 pandemic, which dispersed the cadets from the academy and the influence of its faculty and staff.

“These Cadets chose the easier wrong over the harder right,” Williams wrote.

The academy’s honor code, engraved in a stone monument at the school on the banks of the Hudson River, states: “A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those who do.” USA TODAY reported last week the academic scandal is the worst since 1976 when 153 cadets were caught cheating on a mechanical engineering exam.