Complicit? How? That he perpetrated the fraud? To what end? He made up a gf for 2+ years? He was on the cover of SI before the alleged death. Then you think a lawyer and AD of ND is going to go out and publicly defend the kid and speak about the details, including the investigator they hired? I mean. What's the end game? Where's the benefit to a quiet, shy kid that everyone thought was sincere To me, given his ethnicity and faith, the homosexuality angle seems much more likely than him trying to drum up popularity, but of course that question goes both ways as well. Why would you string along Te'o for 2+ years and then fake that character's death? Is "con the college middle linebacker for multiple years, hope he gets famous, then fake their death and blackmail him for the secret" a much more likely outcome? If you read the Deadspin article, this didn't last 2+ years. Te'o Tweeted the account he thought was Kekua's 'pleased to meet you' in October 2011. If you believe Manti's version of events, he presumably made up the Stanford meeting in retrospect to cover the fact that he met her online.