The widespread college admissions scam allegedly involved wealthy parents paying fraudster ringleader William “Ring” Singer thousands upon thousands of dollars to bribe or scheme their kids’ way to into prestigious universities.
In some instances (as with actress Felicity Huffman’s daughter), Singer allegedly arranged for entrance exam scores to be doctored; in others (like with Full House star Lori Loughlin and daughters Bella and Olivia Jade), he has been accused of helping the kids fraudulently get recruited for sports they didn’t actually play. And in many cases, as the Los Angeles Times points out, that sport was rowing.
But … why?
Sports like soccer and basketball may seem perhaps like the more logical activities to be recruited to a university for, as they have loyal fans and a big following. But apparently, rowing’s relatively smaller amount of “fan or media scrutiny” is one of the things that made it such an appealing sport for the scam, along with its penchant for recruiting female athletes. Per the Times:
Ah, makes sense. We can only wonder whether Photoshopping images of students’s heads onto rowers bodies was easy.