Winning Is Everything

Abstract

For years, football and basketball players at Prestige University were earning college credit for classes that never existed. The students were enrolled in fake courses, known as "ghost classes," with no formal instruction or required meeting times and requiring only a single term paper. Faculty, staff, and administrators were complicit in quietly providing student athletes in revenue-generating sports academic credit for coursework they did not complete. However, the scandal became nationwide news, forcing Prestige to reconsider its key values and mission and placing the integrity of the university's academic and athletics programs in jeopardy.