Using one's personal connections or social status to further kids both athletically and academically is an extremely controversial topic. Since 2019,  33 parents have been proven guilty to paying thousands of dollars to get their children accepted into prestigious universities across the United States. Often times, these people will use their wealth to hire individuals who will organize and scam these institutions into admitting under-qualified candidates. 

Out of the 33 parents found guilty of bribery and scamming college admissions, two of these individuals are long-time television actresses,  Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. The two women hired a man by the name of William Singer to illegally grant their children access into some of the most reputable schools in the country. Huffman paid over $15,000 to improve her daughter's SAT scores, while Loughlin had her kids recruited as successful athletes with fake athletic portfolios. There have been many other cases regarding the college cheating scandal where coaches from different universities have admitted to allowing illegal activity to influence recruiting decisions. For starters, the sailing coach at Stanford University confessed to accepting bribes from parents for over $270,000. Another example would be at Georgetown University, where the tennis coach recruited twelve fake athletes into his program.

William (Rick) Singer has played a key role in the college admissions scandal since the very start, as he was the perpetrator of these fraudulent crimes. Singer had a variety of approaches as to how he would manipulate a student's credibility in order to be accepted into a school. He was known to have bribed a plethora of different college coaches into recruiting under-qualified athletes, including Yale University, Georgetown University, and the University of Southern California. It is evident that such criminal activity is one of the key reasons as to why many deserving student-athletes are turned away and denied the opportunity to learn and grow as an individual.