Freshman PG Matt Mooney Cites Bullying Among Reasons for Transfer from Air Force

Matt Mooney, who was recently granted a release from his scholarship at Air Force Academy, took time to talk with Eric Van Dril of the Pioneer Press (via the Chicago Tribune) about why he transferred from the school.  

Mooney noted that bullying from upperclassmen was one of the reasons he decided to move on, as he told Van Dril:

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I honestly have no problem with the military, it's just the Air Force Academy isn't the same as the military. It's a much different place. Freshman year here is really rough. It's meant to be a year to see if you can stick it out and see if you're ready for the military, but a lot of things go on that people don't really realize. There's a lot of bullying and things like that, honestly, because the system is [run] by upperclassmen. And freshmen have no power, whatsoever. It was just a rough year. It was kind of depressing, actually.

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He also gave a specific example of an instance of bullying:

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We had to carry our backpacks in our left hand, and we have to run to and from class — to and from everywhere. One day, I was running to mandatory breakfast with my backpack in my left hand. I'm running there, it's 6:45 in the morning, it's cold. And one of the upperclassmen says I'm not running fast enough and they just dropped me and made me start doing push-ups. That's kind of the stuff they can do. There's a lot of examples, but that's one of them. 

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Per Van Dril, Air Force spokesman Meade Warthen claimed that bullying did not occur, that Mooney was subject to the same training as the other cadets at the school, that what Mooney described was a practiced part of the curriculum to build up a tolerance for mental and physical stress and that upperclassmen were instructed to push the freshmen to help build their leadership skills. 

Air Force head basketball coach Dave Pilipovich also noted earlier in the month that Mooney "hadn’t embraced the military aspect of the academy and had struggled with it throughout his time at Air Force," per Brent Briggeman of Gazette.com.

Mooney clearly felt, however, that his treatment went above and beyond an acceptable level of training. 

Mooney averaged 6.9 points and 1.8 assists in 19.2 minutes per game this season. As he told Van Dril, he has offers from South Dakota, Colgate, Penn, New Hampshire and Louisiana-Lafayette and plans on visiting those schools.

It remains to be seen if the NCAA will look into any bullying at Air Force, though the curriculum and training at military schools are far different than what the average college student experiences, which will likely be taken into account if an investigation is launched. For now, it would appear Mooney is glad to be cutting ties with the Air Force.