Petition Fraud Charges Officially Filed Against 10 NDSU Football Players

Tweet

Written By:
Rob Port

Sep 7, 2012
11:15am

But don’t worry, because the coaches and administrators at North Dakota State University are all enormous hypocrites, all of the active players will be eligible to play this weekend. Because football is more important than silly things like integrity and honesty.

Prosecutors Friday morning officially charged 15 people with fraud for allegedly forging signatures on petitions for two North Dakota ballot initiatives.

Among those facing charges, 10 current and 3 former North Dakota State University football players. …

Cass County State’s Attorney Birch Burdick says the 15 are scheduled for their first court appearance October 2.

In an editorial earlier this week the Grand Forks Herald asked that NDSU President Dean Bresciani get involved in the matter. So far that hasn’t happened, which isn’t surprising. If North Dakota’s university system is know for anything it’s stonewalling demands for transparency and accountability.

A teacher or a police officer accused of a crime like this would be suspended from their job. Indeed, NDSU has removed from its sports team other athletes who have been charged with less serious offenses. But in this case the players being charged are important to the team, and so NDSU bases their priorities not on fairness or justice but on how important the players are.

Which, again, isn’t surprising from a university system that is also willing to lower academic standards so that the football teams can recruit enough players.