There is no question that there will always be a race between technological advances and cheating (whether that makes it easier to cheat or be caught is an interesting subject). See, e.g.,
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-12-19/cheating-at-chess-and-other-pastimes (Article about chess, technology and cheating).
Provide a decent source of study as to why athletes should be singled out. I haven’t yet seen a study pointing to any unique cheating issues with athletes. I’ve produced two minutes worth of looking at the cheating issue - and, no mention of athletes as a particular subgroup more inclined to cheat.
I am not sure what the press covers or doesn’t cover - I feel that whatever coverage sells their product is what is published - the more sensational the better. By looking how often these athlete bashing threads come up (about every week), it appears there is a segment of the population who buys into that narrative.
You are speculating that an athlete’s work load - since his/her ability to compete academically is suspect (you propose to rework the AI) - is a direct underlying cause of athletes cheating. The studies show students wanting to get into medical school cheat, students trying to get into a good college cheat, international hopefuls cheat, students trying to remain academically eligible cheat, students trying to meet their merit scholarships cheat, students trying to meet parental expectations cheat, students under time pressure cheat, students who party cheat.
To me, the take away from the studies to date is this: when an individual’s incentives line up with cheating, the person will cheat.
In most D1 schools (the Ivy League is an exception), athletes are provided special access to academic help just for the reasons you assert (the schools recognize the incredible time commitment). At S’s school, during times of high stress academics (mid terms and finals), practices were curtailed (in season), made completely voluntary and/or timing of workouts were left to the individual athlete to decide. Does that mean the athlete will study? Some do and some don’t; just like the rest of the student population.
You also assert that non-athletes somehow have the ability to cut back on their activities while athletes don’t. It is true that athletes are incredibly committed to their sport and that they often do not have the choice to “cut back” as needed. But what about the newspaper editor; the researcher, the person organizing the school charity 5k which falls right before finals, the student who works to pay rent, etc.? I don’t think you are saying that these students can simply down their non academic activities when they have committed to those.
Athletes are a group of students who have taken an EC to the stratosphere (beginning from the time other students were in grade school and well before the manipulation of ECs to gain attention in the application process began), met the academic bar set by a particular school, and become suspect when they set foot on campus. Yet students who are “no longer weighed down” by the HS race to build a resume which is then promptly forgotten, are somehow fine - because those passions were really not passions.
While there is much to be desired in the way college athletes are treated and the priorities some colleges place on athletics (lack of food, providing the cannon fodder for schools to pay incredible amounts to certain coaches, crazy NCAA rules and inconsistent application of those rules, etc.), there is no research showing cheating is an issue correlated with, or caused by, athletics. That was the OPs underlying hypothesis.