I'm a member of the Council of the College of Engineering and our annual meeting was this past Thursday through Saturday. At the dinner on Thursday, I sat at a table with an executive from Student Affairs. We talked at length about what is going on and the process.
Although I am going to intentionally leave out any reference to this person or their title, I will pass along what was discussed. Note that no names were mentioned, so I can't give you specifics on each player.
1st - the evidence that lead to this investigation was discovered by a faculty member, but there is no evidence to suggest that any University employee at any level was involved. This was strictly an issue between student tutors and students. This means that the need to vacate wins is highly unlikely but not impossible.
2nd - the 5 football players are not the only students involved.
3rd - the investigation was completed early last week.
4th - the judicial process in accordance with the Honor Code didn't begin until late last week upon conclusion of the investigation (i.e. the gathering of evidence).
5th - the judicial process is anticipated to take 5 - 7 business days at most, which means concluding no later than this Thursday. The panel includes faculty, administration and students. Because of student involvement, it couldn't have begun prior to last Tuesday when classes began regardless of how quickly the investigation concluded. For everyone complaining that this is taking too long, you need to relax. There was absolutely nothing ND could have done to speed this up without breaking their own pre-established rules which would itself be an NCAA violation.
6th - there appear to be 2 alleged infractions: Cheating (having someone else do a student's work) and Silence (knowing of the infraction but not reporting). The first would require an F for the course and possible one semester expulsion for a first offense. The second would most likely be a slap on the wrist and "time served". In other words, the players that cheated would be out at least 3 - 6 games if not the full season. Those that were Silent would likely be reinstated immediately.
7th - any student-athletes involved will receive the EXACT same punishment as any students involved for the same offense. In other words, no more and no less punishment with the obvious exception being playing time.
Based upon my conversation with this person, I'm cautiously optimistic that only 1 or 2 actually are accused of cheating. The majority appear to have known but not reported.
Now to the on-campus rumor mill. Russell isn't one accused of cheating. It was his ex-girlfriend that was the tutor and thus he knew what was going on. It appears that Williams and/or Daniels are the likely suspects, but this is pure rumor. It also appears to have occurred several semesters prior to now.
As for the critics of the University, I shall affectionately and collectively refer to them as Jon Snow because "You know nothing!" ND is handling this EXACTLY as they should in accordance with the Honor Code.
My conclusion is that we'll know tomorrow or at worst by Thursday and most of the 5 will be playing against Michigan. This is purely my guess based upon the discussions I had.
