The Army football team wooed 14 recruits in January with an alcohol-fueled party, a dinner date with female cadets, cash from boosters and VIP treatment on a party bus complete with cheerleaders and a police escort, documents obtained by The Gazette show.
The U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., which acknowledged the misconduct to The Gazette, disciplined 20 cadets for promoting underage drinking and other misdeeds and self-reported a recruiting violation to the NCAA. Two officers were reprimanded along with a pair of coaches. Those involved, though, avoided more serious punishments, including dismissal from the academy for cadets and courts-martial for officers.
The football players involved, including Army starting quarterback Angel Santiago, are expected to be on the field at West Point’s Michie Stadium when Army takes on the Air Force Academy on Nov. 1.
The nation’s oldest military academy said that it dealt with the cadets involved harshly.
“Although seen as a minor infraction by the NCAA, the U.S. Military Academy takes this very seriously and adjudicated this at the highest level of the disciplinary code,” the institution said in a statement. “We adjudicated this under article 10 of the cadet disciplinary code, and all cadets appeared before the commandant’s disciplinary board.”
Army spokeswoman Theresa Brinkerhoff said the school didn’t disclose the misconduct to the public because it was handled “administratively.”
She said the administrative punishments involved didn’t impact athletic eligibility.
The Pentagon had no immediate comment on the West Point incident.
The revelations out of West Point come as military academy athletic programs, including at the Air Force Academy, face increasing scrutiny for player misconduct. An August Gazette investigation into athlete conduct at Air Force found that a core group of football players had engaged in drug use, binge drinking, sexual assault and academic cheating.
Air Force superintendent Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson reacted to the player misconduct by launching a review of athletic programs and cracking down on player behavior.
