DID THE FBI JUST BLOW UP COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Yesterdays arrests of four college basketball coaches by the FBI have sent shockwaves through the NCAA and its member schools. And from all indications this is just the beginning.  In their announcement the federal prosecutor and F.B.I. stated very clearly that “we have you playbook,” and we are coming for you. 

 

The four coaches, Chuck Person from Auburn, LaMont Evans from Oklahoma State, “Book” Richardson from Arizona and USC’s Tony Bland have all been implicated by the FBI of using money supplied by shoe company Adidas to steer prominent high school recruits toward specific universities, and sports agents.

In addition the Louisville Men’s Basketball program has been implicated in receiving payments of approximately $100,000 which was funneled to the family of recruit Brian Bowen who committed to Louisville early this summer.  In the FBI Statement they indicated that they have phone records to support the alleged criminal behavior by the Louisville staff.

Rick Pitino couldn't talk or deny his way out of the latest allegations

This is but the latest and probably most serious allegations against Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino who has left a trail of NCAA violations at every school he has been at. This is more than NCAA Violations, this is a criminal investigation being conducted by the FBI and all of those involved could be looking a significant jail time.

Pitino ranks up there with disgraced coach Dave Bliss as being one of the most disreputable people in sports. In 2010 he was involved in a federal extortion investigation involving Karen Syphers who served time in prison after attempting to get money from the coach in exchange for keeping quiet.

Then in 2015 members of his staff was basically running a whore house for prospective recruits. And now this federal fraud investigation is probably the final nail in Pitino’s coffin.  Over the years including the 2015 whore house investigation and again yesterday when the latest allegations came to the surface, Pitino claimed he didn’t know and is shocked by the information.  It's your program and if you didn't know, you should have. Your statements and plausible denial just don't hold water.

When you look at everything that is going on under the banner of the NCAA, it appears that the organization has lost total control of its so called member institutions. Recent NCAA investigation at marquee programs like North Carolina, Syracuse and again at Louisville which takes years to complete makes the entire NCAA irrelevant. In short the FBI is doing something the NCAA either refused to do or couldn’t do.  When you get right down to the brass tacks, the NCAA is not capable of managing the vast expanse that is college athletics.

What came out yesterday is just the tip of the iceberg. There will be more schools named and there will be more high profile coaches not only lose their job but become the subjects of criminal investigations.

Louisville announced that Pitino has been placed on unpaid administrative leave which is probably a politically correct way of saying he will be fired in the very near future. Which leave me to ask what about Sean Miller at Arizona, or Bruce Pearl at Auburn, Andy Enfield at USC and Mike Boynton at Oklahoma State, how well are they sleeping at night and how safe are their jobs.

Is this FBI Criminal Investigation a good thing? I think so. This is more about losing scholarships, tournament bans or probations.  This is about significant jail time for the corrupt individuals. Did the  FBI just blow up College Basketball? I think so and I am not at all convinced that it is a bad thing.  The corruption that goes on at major programs needs to be exposed and dealt with, which is again something the NCAA couldn’t or more likely wouldn’t do.