There has been a lot of news this week about the college admission scandal that has embroiled over 50 parents, including a few celebrities (such as Full House star Lori Loughlin and actress Felicity Huffman) who allegedly committed fraud to get their children enrolled in the college of their choice.
Allegations of the fraud include payment of bribes to cheat on proctored exams such as the SAT and ACT, as well as creating phony athlete profiles and bribing college coaches to get their kids enrolled as athletic recruits.
Mickelson Used Rick Singer’s Services
The ringleader of this whole scam is a man by the name of Rick Singer, who ran a for-profit college admissions business and used it to funnel money from the parents to the test proctors and coaches to make the enrollment happen. When it seemed like we had heard all of the celebrity names tied to Singer earlier in the week, more names have been linked to him, including Phil Mickelson.
After completing his round at The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass on Thursday, Mickelson was met with the expected questioning regarding his relationship with Singer, and had this to say to the assemblage of reporters (as reported on golf.com):
“We, along with thousands of other families, hired he and his company to help us guide through the college application process. We’re probably more shocked than anyone and we’ve been dealing with it the last few days, but that’s about it.”
Following his meeting the media, he also posted this message on his Twitter account:
Our family, along with thousands of others, used Rick Singer’s company to guide us through the college admission process. We are shocked by the revelations of these events. Obviously, we were not part of this fraud, our kids would disown us if we ever tried to interfere.
— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) March 14, 2019
Our Reaction
Photo Credit: Yahoo! Sports
Obviously, this is a fan site of the legend Phil Mickelson and we think this is all a bunch of bull. He has a wonderful family and talented, hard-working kids. By his own admission, he is a proud dad of how gifted and well-developed his children are. They have good grades, numerous extracurricular activities, and worldly views that have colleges fighting to get them as students.
We believe that Mickelson used Singer’s services like thousands of other parents, just (as he claimed) as a way to help them navigate the college admissions process. He has used Singer’s company for three years (he currently has a daughter who is a sophomore at Brown University) and got to know the tutors and administrative staff that got dozens of colleges on their radar and helped navigate through the confusing process.
We know a lot of people will look at this case with a bit of skepticism, as they are clouded by the stigma of his insider trading activity in the past. Let us remind you, he was cleared of any wrongdoing in that case and has strongly denied any illicit activity (just as he’s doing with this admissions scandal).
Until any definitive proof comes out that shows Mickelson was paying bribes for test-taking or admission, he is innocent until proven guilty in this. In all the other cases that made the news this week, there are wiretapped conversations and a paper trail of money being funneled. At this time, we’ve seen nothing along those lines with Phil, and believe he honestly used these services in the way he’s claimed.
