Notre Dame is 5-0 and ranked sixth nationally without the help of suspended players KeiVarae Russell, Ishaq Williams, DaVaris Daniels and Kendall Moore, and reinforcements don’t appear to be on the way any time soon.
According to a Notre Dame spokesman through ND Insider, the school will not announce the results of its academic fraud investigation, nor its findings in its honest committee hearings. Instead, the school will communicate its decision to the five players involved in the academic fraud scandal (safety Eilar Hardy was also implicated but rejoined the team on Aug. 28), and then allow those players to disclose their status at their discretion.
One would assume the school would take a different tactic if the four players still suspended were to be reinstated.
Russell, Williams, Daniels and Moore have been barred from team activities since Aug. 15, but have remained enrolled in school. Russell, Williams and Daniels were listed as starters at the time of their removal.
The statement in full, ND Insider:
On August 15 the Office of General Counsel of the University of Notre Dame notified the NCAA that because of potential ineligibility issues, the University was withholding from football participation certain student-athletes as part of an inquiry into possible academic dishonesty involving several other students as well. The NCAA was also informed that upon the start of the academic year later in the month, appropriate University committees would meet to develop review processes consistent with the Undergraduate Academic Code of Honor.
Often, an academic honesty review involves one student and one academic department. Due to the complexity of cases involving multiple disciplines, Comprehensive Honesty Committees were impaneled to review memoranda and extensive exhibits compiled in connection with the General Counsel’s initial inquiry, interview witnesses and the subjects of the hearings, and potentially impose sanctions subject to appeal. A faculty reporter was also appointed to review voluminous material collected during the General Counsel’s investigation to identify cases for the Comprehensive Committees’ review.
Hearings for those withheld from football were completed on Friday. Decisions will be communicated individually to affected student-athletes and other students alike, as deliberations on each case conclude. As with other student academic records, the results of the review are confidential, and the University will not disclose them, although affected students may if they so choose. If it is determined that student-athletes would have been ineligible during past competition, Notre Dame will voluntarily impose appropriate sanctions, report our findings to the NCAA, and await its independent review.
The principal purpose of the Honor Code process (see http://honorcode.nd.edu/) is to educate our students as to the importance of academic integrity. The process is time-consuming because it is thorough, as it must be to ensure integrity and fairness. Having said that, we recognize it can be difficult for students, regardless of culpability, who are subject to such reviews, especially when public scrutiny becomes so magnified for those who are student-athletes. We are working to resolve these situations as quickly as possible.