(UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.) – Kenny Rogers, Shawne Merriman, Barry Bonds, Floyd Landis and Joe College Student: What do they have in common?

I know, it’s Friday, you don’t want to take a little quiz, but humor me on this one.

The answer is, more than likely, they all cheat.

Teachers always talk about catching cheaters in the act. Penn State professors go over the integrity code every single time they read the syllabus for a class. Politicians use campaign finance reform as a pillar of any good run for office. Sports teams constantly talk about the integrity of the sport.

Talk about hollow. Talk about hypocritical. Talk about pointless.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but cheating is here to stay — not that it ever left. According to a June 2005 study by the Center for Academic Integrity (CAI), some 70 percent of college students surveyed admitted to cheating in some form. Nearly 25 percent of students admitted to “serious test cheating” and about 50 percent admitted to “one or more instances of serious cheating on written assignments.”

According to the CAI’s research, the numbers are much the same for high schools, both public and parochial. So, with steroid allegations in sports, cheating at the highest level of education and suspiciously funded political campaigns, I’ve come to a conclusion.

Cheating isn’t just rampant and generally ignored – it’s the American Way. Kids learn at a young age that if at first you don’t succeed, cheat, cheat again. From my own high school experience, I can say that if some students spent as much time studying as they did finding new and improved ways to hide their crib sheets, they’d have been straight-A students.

One of the oldest sayings in every parental book is “Cheaters never win, and winners never cheat.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Floyd Landis tested positive for illegal substances after the Tour de France. Without the test, he wins the race through unsavory means. Barry Bonds will probably break the career-home-run record, and he has never admitted to knowingly taking steroids.

Sorry, but that’s like me going to the bar, getting sloshed, and then telling the police that I thought I was just drinking carbonated water with yellow dye in it.

The popular excuse for cheating: Everyone else is doing it. Sadly, the public can’t seem to accept this wholly accurate view of the situation.

Why do politicians cheat on campaign finance and a host of other issues? It’s because their opponent is doing the same thing.

Why do athletes use performance enhancers? It’s because the guy on the other team is probably doing something even worse.

At this point, it probably isn’t even a big deal to them. I know it isn’t a big deal to students. All the Penn State students I talked to admitted to cheating in some form in both high school and college. A popular explanation was the “I think I’m right, but I just want to peek at that person’s Scantron to see if they put the same thing as me.”

The actual problem with the cheating epidemic at high schools and colleges is the fact that administrators are getting worked up about it in the first place. People are going to cheat, like it or not. They’ll probably feel a bit guilty about it afterward, and they might study harder because of that guilt. For all of the admissions of cheating I heard, most people said they only did it as a last resort. I encountered no compulsive cheaters when I talked to students — at least, none who were willing to admit it.

As the public wrings its hands about cheating at the highest levels of business, politics and sports, and as administrators attempt to stay one step ahead of plagiarists, remember this: They probably did it too. After all, it is the American Way.