(The star basketball player was) accepted at George Washington after failing to graduate in five years from his original high school and receiving no grades at three prep schools in the next two years, including one that burned down after he was there five days. The National Collegiate Athletic Association certified his transcript without any verification.

…"If you knew the circumstances way back, you would probably make a different decision," said Robert Chernak, George Washington's senior vice president of student and support services, who oversees the school's admissions department. "Clearly, you would have to at least researched further the credibility of the [prep] school." [Weirdly dissociative use of the second person here.]

[The player] said school officials had told him not to speak to a Post reporter. [That’s odd. If I were a GW student, I’d be pretty shocked to be told I couldn’t speak to a reporter. Or anyone else.]

The NCAA's eligibility certification process is handled by a private company it created, Clearinghouse, which approves high school courses and transcripts of recruits. Under Clearinghouse policy, there was no requirement to check if any of the schools on Williams's transcript existed, if the grades were real or if he attended the schools, said Kevin Lennon, an NCAA official. The SAT scores of applicants, critical for certification, are allowed to be submitted in handwriting, instead of on an Educational Testing Service document. Those scores are not compared to official results, Lennon said. [It’s hard to think of a more aptly named company than Clearinghouse, its sole function being to clear athletes to play at universities under any circumstances.]

Administrators at other local universities, including American University and Maryland, disagreed with George Washington's emphasis on Clearinghouse approval in the admission decision. They said student-athletes at their schools go through the same admissions procedures as all applicants. [Score one for the competition. But I’d still want to know about the academic plausibility of the people you take under established procedures.]

…George Washington officials declined to say from what high school Williams graduated. [Guess this is their only move at this point.]