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SEC Sports
The massive college admissions scandal has a direct IMG Academy link
Buried behind the gaudy headlines of the ongoing Department of Justice college admissions fraud case, obscured by the limelight of actresses Lori Laughlin and Felicity Huffman and the elite colleges like Yale, Georgetown and USC, there lies a very serious concern for Americaās most elite pan-sports program. Mark Riddell, the alleged standardized testing middle man at the center of the admissions manipulation scheme, is also the director of college entrance exam preparation at IMG Academy.
Yes, this is the same Mark Riddell who was fingered as the man who attempted to take an ACT test in place of a student by faking his handwriting, completing the college entrance exam in his own hotel room ahead of time. This is the same Mark Riddell who has now been charged with secretly taking SAT and ACT tests for clients of alleged con man William Rick Singer, the mastermind and ring leader behind the admissions manipulation scheme.
Now, the fact that Riddell was providing these clearly illegal (if true) services for private clients as part of Singerās larger scheme does not in itself mean he was doing the same thing for IMG Academyās elite student athletes who also needed to achieve minimum test scores to qualify for college programs. But it also is a connection, albeit a very unwelcome one, between IMG and the scandal du jour.
āThere needs to be a broad-based re-inspection of every test score they achieved, every course they took and who taught those courses,ā Gerald Gurney, assistant professor of higher education at the University of Oklahoma and longtime advocate for reform in college sports, told Yahoo Sports.
Buried behind the gaudy headlines of the ongoing Department of Justice college admissions fraud case, obscured by the limelight of actresses Lori Laughlin and Felicity Huffman and the elite colleges like Yale, Georgetown and USC, there lies a very serious concern for Americaās most elite pan-sports program. Mark Riddell, the alleged standardized testing middle man at the center of the admissions manipulation scheme, is also the director of college entrance exam preparation at IMG Academy.
Yes, this is the same Mark Riddell who was fingered as the man who attempted to take an ACT test in place of a student by faking his handwriting, completing the college entrance exam in his own hotel room ahead of time. This is the same Mark Riddell who has now been charged with secretly taking SAT and ACT tests for clients of alleged con man William Rick Singer, the mastermind and ring leader behind the admissions manipulation scheme.
Now, the fact that Riddell was providing these clearly illegal (if true) services for private clients as part of Singerās larger scheme does not in itself mean he was doing the same thing for IMG Academyās elite student athletes who also needed to achieve minimum test scores to qualify for college programs. But it also is a connection, albeit a very unwelcome one, between IMG and the scandal du jour.
āThere needs to be a broad-based re-inspection of every test score they achieved, every course they took and who taught those courses,ā Gerald Gurney, assistant professor of higher education at the University of Oklahoma and longtime advocate for reform in college sports, told Yahoo Sports.
