FBI and US Justice Dept. charge several college basketball coaches with corruption

[tornado]

Sporting News writer Mike DeCourcey calls out NCAA and asks why more isn't being done, and more coaches aren't being fired
over this massive cheating scandal that we're seeing only the tip of the iceberg...

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/ncaa-basketball/news/trials-are-over-but-confusion-still-rampant-in-college-basketballs-corruption-scandal/14ukrjq5hpyel1xwlmhca9teoj

[bradleyfan124]

Sporting News writer Mike DeCourcey calls out NCAA and asks why more isn't being done, and more coaches aren't being fired
over this massive cheating scandal that we're seeing only the tip of the iceberg...
https://www.sportingnews.com/us/ncaa...l1xwlmhca9teoj

It is about time someone stood up and started to say it like it is. He hits it right on the head

[Da Coach]

The FBI has concluded their case, and middleman Christian Dawkins was convicted on a couple lesser charges than all he was prosecuted for. Now it is up to the NCAA to clean up college basketball. However, many don't expect much more to happen, despite lots of evidence and testiminoy that a bunch of college coaches cheated and a lot of head coaches were fully aware of what was happening. Check out this brief article, and the links to other articles.

https://tucson.com/sports/arizonawildcats/basketball/ncaa-official-says-feds-won-t-turn-over-all-evidence/article_6d9cb19c-72a4-11e9-b22d-07c734a3ee9f.html

[tornado]

ok - now we see how crooked the system is and how the system also really doesn't care to send any message at to the law-breakers...

One of the most crooked of all the players in this FBI corruption case is Tony Bland of USC - even his own school says he caused great harm to college basketball
https://www.latimes.com/sports/usc/l...603-story.html

he just got charged......
and his sentence is only probation and community service...
https://abc7.com/sports/ex-usc-assis...-plea/5332618/

[tornado]

one of the first to get prison time in this scandal is Lamont Evans - who played collegiate ball at Drake..

https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2019/06/07/lamont-evans-sentenced-three-months-prison-oklahoma-state

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/college/drake/drake-bulldogs/2017/09/26/former-drake-player-college-basketball-assistants-arrested-fbi-fraud-corruption-scheme/703835001/

[Tommy]

ok - now we see how crooked the system is and how the system also really doesn't care to send any message at to the law-breakers...

One of the most crooked of all the players in this FBI corruption case is Tony Bland of USC - even his own school says he caused great harm to college basketball
https://www.latimes.com/sports/usc/l...603-story.html

he just got charged......
and his sentence is only probation and community service...
https://abc7.com/sports/ex-usc-assis...-plea/5332618/

Frankly I'd like to see the FBI focusing on, I don't know, things that protect the country. As far as I'm concerned, if schools want to pay kids to play, they should be able to. With the money the schools rake in because of these kids, it would only make sense, and I thought this was a free country anyway, isn't it?

The only reason this is a rule at all is to protect the NCAA, not to protect the purity of the game, and certainly not to protect the kids. Let's be honest, most schools (certainly the biggest) break the rules to their benefit anyways, but by having it be 'against the rules', they certainly save money. It's all a big game to allow the NCAA pay out as little as possible and maintain the marketing rights on these kids who are being used and taken advantage of for their talents. And before you go on about these kids getting a free education, the average annual increase in college tuition from 1980-2014 grew by nearly 260% . Just one more stat to back up the case against government subsidies. Point being, the cost is whatever these schools can squeeze out of folks, and the value is another thing entirely.

By allowing kids to be paid, they'd be signing a legal contract, which would help give them more security than they have now, and would also cut down on the constant transferring. Look, the NCAA isn't concerned with the best interest of these kids. If they were, they wouldn't have a problem with them earning money while they produce revenue for the school, and this would encourage them to stay and finish in one place. Certainly moving from school to school doesn't increase the likelihood of a good education (maybe it doesn't affect all, but certainly some). But this doesn't happen because the big schools want to be able to toss away the players that don't perform for them so they can replace them with new, fresh, and better talent.

Lastly, the most important point I'd like to make is this: I don't want to see kids going to prison for accepting money for playing basketball. Does anyone think they should? If so, I'd love to hear the argument.

[tornado]

if schools want to pay kids to play, they should be able to. With the money the schools rake in because of these kids, it would only make sense, and I thought this was a free country anyway, isn't it?

...By allowing kids to be paid, they'd be signing a legal contract, which would help give them more security ....

Actually - any and every school DOES have the right to pay kids - and most do - but they must do so within the rules and not cheat and even break federal laws in doing so.

but every athlete has every opportunity to be paid in other ways, too-
each and every one has the opportunity to go play for money anywhere they want - there are 30 NBA teams and 1000 other pro teams around the world...

BUT you want to know why they don't go play pro but go to college instead? Because, simply, they are NOT good enough.
They go to college to gain a TREMENDOUS benefit - they develop, get exposure, get better and then can go make good money if they choose.

Only a handful of schools WANT to pay kids, but if those schools are a part of NCAA, NAIA or any other amateur organization, they have AGREED to remain amateur and NOT pay the kids. If those schools want to break those rules then they should leave and form a professional organization - but they won't because then they'd go broke. They know lots of students would not want to pay the tuition if that money just goes to pay pro athletes, and the schools might also lose federal and state funding.

Overall, it creates a very complicated situation of their own making. Where do you draw the line - do you also pay all the women athletes as much as the men, because if you don't you're gonna get sued. (Title IX). Do you also pay the rowing team or the chess team or the speech team?

What these schools really want is to be able to cheat and get away with it. They want to have the right to make up new rules whenever it suits them.
Their lust for winning and hauling in athletic revenue has blinded them to what got them here and the spirit of amateurism that schools have been committed to for 120+ years.
They got caught cheating - they need to pay the penalty and then be required to follow the rules they had PREVIOUSLY agreed to play under. I don't think the problem of cheating will go away if we just change the rules every time they cheat - so that their cheating becomes legal. Then we will see a never-ending cycle of more cheating and they will expect the rules to be changed for their benefit again.

Next thing you know you're gonna have kids at high schools and jucos- even grade schools- demanding to be paid.
It's not broke that bad if they just follow the rules - it does not need a fix that would destroy 80% of all college sports.

[Tommy]

Paying all sports equally is not an issue. Paying younger kids who demand it, not an issue. In a free market, schools would pay who they want, what they want. No more, no less. If someone demands to be paid more or paid at all and someone doesn’t feel they’re worth it, the solution is simply to say no.
Too many rules and laws, and they aren’t made for the benefit of you and I, and certainly not for the kids.

[LongTimeFan]

I'm sorry but I have never seen any kids go to jail for accepting under the table payments. Has anyone else? They may not be able to play college ball in the extreme cases. However, Europe is calling more high school kids these days. I think I have even heard of a new league being formed that would pay talented college kids more money that most of us make and it would help to prepare them for the pro leagues, either here or abroad. I believe, correct me if I am wrong, but these get a year learning new cultures, being paid a good salary, room and board, and all tax free. Plus they do not have to pretend they are going to class or doing the home work. Yes, a lot of college athletes have to go to class, but these are not the kids being referred to in this thread. Look at North Carolina, these are just kids getting paid and not even doing school work, according to the reports.

[tornado]

Cheating followup....

Wall Street Journal has a column about how involved IMG Academy (and maybe some other prep schools) were in taking bribes from agents, shoe companies & middlemen and in faking test scores to help kids head off to colleges....
There's talk that several top name college players who are "IMG grads" actually might be or could be ineligible because their tests scores and grades may be fraudulent. Problem is, it might take a lot longer to prove all this and virtually all those IMG guys are already out of college now...
So, just like the Derrick Rose situation at Memphis with John Calipari - if the NCAA retroactively rules him ineligible long after he's in the NBA, and yanks some wins off the board, it really doesn't hurt anyone and is a very unpopular outcome.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-core-...mg-11561973402


*

[Da Coach]

It continues to amaze me (not really ) that relatively low-paid reporters from these newspapers can dig into these cases and find massive cheating scandals, while the NCAA with all their billions of dollars remain oblivious and show no interest in acknowledging or even trying to find these cases of obvious corruption or doing anything about it.

[tornado]

since the Wall Street Journal has a paywall, I have snuck the entire article in to the post above...
just look for a tiny little gray asterisk 3 lines below the link & click on that

[tornado]

NCAA says they have the proof and are going to drop the hammer on NC State for paying huge sums (at least $40K)
to land future NBA'er Dennis Smith...

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/nc-state-receives-notice-of-allegations-from-ncaa-related-to-dennis-smith-jr-former-coach-mark-gottfried/

now, to me, the interesting thing is this.... those payments were made 4-5 years ago and the proof was made widely public
by FBI as far back as 1 1/2 to 2 years ago. So why does NCAA swoop in and nail schools like Bradley within a month or two of some alleged minor violation - but when it's some HUGE cash bribe by a big name school, the NCAA moves so freaking slowly, that nobody who actually violated the rules is even still at NC State! Smith can't be penalized, Coach Gottfried has long since moved on and coaches elsewhere, and all the assistants who cheated have moved on. This is typical of NCAA to drag their feet forever in these big cases....
The UNC fake-class academic corruption, the USC/Reggie Bush payoffs & impermissible benefits & others took 5-10 years before NCAA actually acted!

[Da Coach]

The NCAA levies penalties against DePaul for infractions for impermissible benefits to recruits.
Head Coach Dave Leitao is suspended for their first 3 games for not monitoring and interceding in the cheating, DePaul will be put on probation for 3 years, three-year show-cause order for the former associate head coach, vacating the records for the games in which the recruit involved played in, a couple relatively harmless recruiting restrictions, and a fine ($5000 + 1% of the DePaul basketball budget).

https://twitter.com/jeffborzello/status/1153729481619771394

https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/depaul-men-s-basketball-associate-head-coach-violated-ncaa-ethical-conduct-rules

[Da Coach]

A federal judge in the FBI case regarding money laundering, fraud, and bribery in the NCAA pay-for-play cheating scandal ruled today that the NCAA cannot have access to any of the FBI evidence or testimony, other than what has already been made public in the trials.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...rruption-trial

Unfortunately, that means that despite the fact there was evidence of a lot more coaches and programs cheating, the only names we might ever know are the ones already made public. And those coaches, all assistants, already lost their jobs a long time ago. There are probably a bunch of other coaches like maybe Sean Miller, Bruce Pearl, Bill Self, Roy Williams, Greg McDermott, Gregg Marshall, Coach K, and others feeling a bit relieved.