It's kinda stupid but they aren't going after players or their families. They are charging coaches for taking bribes to influence athletes and Sportswear employees for illegally funneling money. I'm cool with the first set of charges. I'm ambivalent about the latter charges.
agents are drones, do what the queen wants. but fack all that noise, athletes should be given free/reduced fee education and be allowed to bill for each hour they work and paid a legal, taxable wage.
Because federal crimes were committed. Saying the FBI doesn't want college athletes paid is pretty silly. However, that clearly is true about the NCAA.
With all the talk over the last week or so around the recruiting violations, one question that immediately occurred to me hasn't been discussed. WHY is the FBI investigating this? As far as I can tell, it is NCAA violations. No federal law is involved, so....no reason for the FBI to be involved. So...why are they? What federal laws are being violated? FWIW, here is an article attempting to answer these questions: However, I still don't think it applies. And I certainly don't think it rises above the level of other crimes that the FBI should be investigating, but isn't, because someone decided this was more important. From the article: "Well, the solicitation of bribes is a crime." Well, who 'solicited'? And bribes for what, exactly? Again, it isn't illegal for a college player to take money from someone to go to college. NCAA violation, yes. Illegal, no. (how many here had their parents or other relative pay for some of their college? Was that illegal?) And note the phrasing...solicitation of bribes. Doesn't say its illegal to get them, only to ask for them (which I guess explains the wiretaps). Although many are talking about the impact of this on pay for play, I personally think it brings up an even bigger question: Exactly what purpose does the NCAA serve currently? If it went away, would we still have college sports? Certainly. So...why do we need it? it mostly seems its purpose is to put forward and monitor out of date policies and impose either silly (can't have peanut butter on your bagel) or meaningless (what punishment do the actual purpetrators of these infractions receive (ie, the coaches, players, etc) receive)?
I think an avenue of investigation could be the possibility that state funds are being used to secretly pay athletes. If a state school like Arizona is paying Deandre Ayton, but accounting for that in a different way to avoid NCAA trouble, that becomes a financial crime with misappropriated state funds.
Hmmm, yes, I hadn't thought of that. Although still a state crime, not a federal one. But since that IS a crime, it then opens up the collusion to commit a crime, etc.
