The first distinguishing characteristic of the Varsity Blues scandal is that it's extremely funny: a bunch of rich parents paid a guy to photoshop their underachieving children into athletic scenarios they were not skilled enough to earn as part of a baroque scheme to get them into various prestigious universities. This shoddy work highlights the brazenness of Rick Singer's scheme, that he and his clientele were so unconcerned with getting caught that they scarcely bothered to cover their tracks.
Dig deeper, however, and the story is much more complex and much more interesting. It is notable, for example, that the parents risking light federal prison raps to get their kids into places like University of Southern California were themselves rich, but not of the ultra-wealthy stratum of society that could simply buy a private school a new library in exchange for admission. This was class war by the nouveau riche against the aristocracy.
Sports also play quite the role. By first reading, the particularities of using athletics to get into college might seem mildly incidental: they are merely one area where a school relaxes admissions requirements. Sports are seen as one of the final truly meritocratic playing fields. This week's guest, Oregon State professor Kirsten Hextrum, explains that parents in this tier of wealth have been investing in prohibitively expensive coaching for their kids for a long time, and those expenses can be thought of as a type of class advantage in a field often conceived of as being purely defined by genetics. In other words, college sports themselves represent an opportunity for more class warfare.
With this episode, Only If You Get Caught has wrapped up its first season. Thank you for listening! We are currently in pre-production on the second season, so if you have any story ideas or feedback for the show, feel free to email me at patrick@defector.com.
Listen to Only If You Get Caught wherever you enjoy podcasts. The show is produced by Alex Sujong Laughlin and hosted by me. You can find the show's transcript here.
