Stemit, I’m sure the press hasn’t overlooked cheating scandals involving dozens of chess players at the Ivies. Any large cheating case receives attention in the press. The Duke business school cheating scandal was covered by the press some years ago. My argument was not that athletes cheat more–it was that first, technology makes it easier to catch student who cheat, and second, the recent large cheating scandals at the Ivies have involved athletes.
In the old days, it would have been prohibitively expensive to attempt to compare every student’s test paper in a large lecture, let alone to everything published on a topic. Now, through word processors’ search functions, web search engines, and paid services, college officials can compare papers down to the spacing of words.
It is not “using a sledge hammer against athletes” to ask if the time demands placed on the athletes by the colleges can be reconciled with the time demands of strenuous academic study.