As frustrating as it might be when key players might be out the door, Notre Dame is a university with a football team...not a football team with an associated university. Who here can actually say that they have never made the argument that a recruit is daffy to give up a free ND scholarship in order to bet on an NFL career after 3 or 4 years of Mickey Mouse courses at one of those football factories?
Unfortunately, looking the other way when academic fraud is suspected is exactly the kind of thing that cheapens those Mickey Mouse degrees at those other places. Notre Dame does not do that and arguing that this is some sort of witch hunt by "academics" who have it in for the football program is pretty paranoid. So is rolling out stats claiming that 80%+ of college students cheat. While I do not dispute that number, I would like to point out something obvious: the huge majority of cheating goes undetected. Those who are caught most likely did not get caught on their first foray into the mirky world of academic dishonesty. If you are caught cheating, you have probably cheated many times over in order to finally be nabbed. I highly doubt 80%+ of college graduates would admit to being habitual cheaters.
So IF one or more of these players is found to have cheated, I hope the exact same rules which apply to any other ND student in the same situation will be applied.
Like all Notre Dame supporters, I am hoping that these allegations do not result in proof of serious cheating. I cross my fingers that a tutor may have may have slightly crossed the line in her editing of player's work and that these incidents require only minor consequences and perhaps some in-service to clarify the regulations related to citing academic sources. It is after-all, best to turn something like this into a learning opportunity.
If however a key player is lost to the team, as bad as that is for supporters of the team, I will be disappointed but supportive of the action. The students involved will receive due process and that is all they deserve. If that means we lose a player, it will also serve as a warning to everybody else who might otherwise think they can cheat with impunity.