NCAA basketball coaches among 10 charged with fraud and corruption

This is ridiculous. This all needs to be legalized so that players get paid to perform for the colleges who make money off their servitude.

Why is any of this inherently considered illegal. And who made those rules, anyhow.

imo, the NCAA is the corrupt organization. They are in existence to create the belief that athletes shouldn't be paid and to create rules that make it corruption and fraud. I recommend watching the documentary "Schooled: The Price of College Sports". Good history lesson of why the organization known as the NCAA was created.

fwiw: Arian Foster has a prominent role in the documentary, too

 

This will get ugly. Please don't let Sean Miller be named.

Just quickly reading this, it seems to be more about coaches/advisers taking bribes than it is about college kids getting paid (which they undoubtedly are)

 

The feds don't get involved in simple pay for play scandals. This isn't Mr. Magoo NCAA.

 

Exactly. I'm curious what the whole story is.

 

Yeah, this will be interesting

 

Sounds to me like just decades long normal stuff where ppl give bribes to push their services, brand and products onto star athletes.

None of that happens with high school girl tennis stars, because it's not illegal. They can talk to anyone.

This happens because it is artificially made illegal.
None of this would happen or be an issue if the NCAA would stop making all the amateur athlete rules.

Decriminalize

 

The entire structure of developmental basketball in this country, from AAU to the NCAA, is hilariously corrupt. It's second only to FIFA.

Pay the athletes and quit pretending that they're anything other than money-makers for the school during the one year they're forced to be on campus.

 

Feds have jurisdiction in interatate crimes.

Is it enough to just say "The police of any kind don't get involved."

Ppl are actually getting arrested. Has that in itself ever happened. NCAA spokesperson claims she doesn't know anything. Yeah, I believe that. I'm guessing this is a new tactic to actually arrest ppl.

I'm interested in reading the actual charges, because I don't see how a company giving money to a coach is against the law, rather just against NCAA rules

That Uber thing is interesting though. Sounds like some agent's stupid idea to launder money to a player or something. Can't figure that one out. But that could easily be fraud for misusing Uber and credit cards

 

I'm sort of interested in how you go from:

to

Given you don't know what the charges are or what crimes were committed, why are you saying it's ridiculous and this unknown activity should be legalized?

 

???

They were arrested.

The article lists the summary of the charges. Name someone who's ever been arrested for giving a player, family or a coach money to persuade them. When I say I want to read the details, I want to read the actual statutes, etc. Some are clearly for Bribery and Corruption. The article says the FBI was conducting an investigation of Bribery. "Bribery" wtf. That's probably going to be thrown out, as I read it, so far. That's absurd.

You don't see arresting someone versus filing NCAA charges against them as a huge difference for giving money to a coach to persuade a player to choose their brand, product, services.

My guess is what this is is the NCAA doing a trial balloon. They've done this type of thing before, where they stretch the definition of the law, and lose cases, learn and improve, then eventually win one to set precedence. This smells like that. Imo, they are trying out a new tactic to stop things that have been happening for decades. They are attempted to stretch the definition of "Bribery" from bribing a public official to a freaking assistant coach.

Plus, this could be scare tactics. Maybe some coaches get automatically fired if arrested and charged.

 

When everything is illegal
the power comes in selective enforcement

Rocket River

 

Or track? Or golf? I dunno.

This seems like a little bit more out of the ordinary.

eta: and yes, most everyone agrees that the NCAA is a shitty cabal.

 

Why do you say this? Because they got arrested?

 

When was the last Fed throwdown on multiple institutions (and outside actors) at the same time?

 

they are student athletes amateur not professional athletes.

 

Never. And that's my point.

Do me a favor. Look up Bribery and Corruption and tell me what an Addidas exec and assistant coaches could have done differently this time to warrant being arrested on Bribery vs no one ever being arrested on Bribery before, for decades of what's seems to be a common practice. (Not counting Bribery for point shaving and throwing games.)

 

So you're suggesting the NCAA is secretly pulling the strings of the FBI?

 

You've convinced me. They all need to go to jail.

I now believe the Adidas Exec and those assistant coaches are criminals, who deserve to be arrested for Bribery and Corruption of the dreams of student-athletes. I know in the past bribes are only crimes involving public officials, but giving money to a coach at a Public University to persuade players to attend your school should indeed be considered the same, and punishable by 80yrs in prison (like they are facing, per the charges). This makes them no better than state and federal employees and public officials who take bribes to award contracts to favored companies like mobs who launder money through Waste Disposal companies, or change laws to suit the highest bidder.

I applaud the NCAA for cooperating to finally put these coaches where they belong, behind bars.

And how dare the sports agencies try to even talk to the students, much less try to coerce others into giving them their business cards.

We are finally getting to the root problem of college sports, students getting paid under the table. We have to protect them. I mean, these guys were funneling money to the families of these students. It's appalling and must be stopped.

And I'm glad Joon Kim, a Stanford booster and United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York behind all this won't have to arrest any Stanford coaches, since they play by the rules, I'm sure.

Here's how he explains it:

Describing the "dark underbelly of college basketball," Acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim of the Southern District of New York said investigators believe bribes were paid to lure top recruits to elite programs — and to affiliate those players with sportswear deals at those universities. Other payments were made to coaches so they would steer young players toward financial and business advisers, in what Kim called an abuse of trust.​

"In exchange for bribes ranging from $13,000 to almost $100,000 each," Kim said, "these coaches allegedly pushed particular managers and advisers on the players and their families."​

"The picture painted by the charges brought today is not a pretty one," Kim said. "Coaches at some of the nation's top programs soliciting and accepting cash bribes; managers and financial advisers circling blue-chip prospects like coyotes; and employees of one of the world's largest sportswear companies secretly funneling cash to the families of high school recruits."
​

The Dark Underbelly of college basketball funneling money to families is scary and dangerous. I'm sure it causes the players not only to select a favored university to attend, but also leave after a year to go to the NBA, and not even get their diplomas. These coaches are trusted servants of these Public Schools. This is all outrageous. And has probably been going on for decades, and needs to stop.

And here is something Person did

Recounting one conversation between Person and a recruit's family, Kim said that Person "assured a player's mother that he himself had not received a penny for promoting that adviser to her. That was a lie, too: That conversation took place five days after Person had taken an envelope filled with $15,000 in cash from that very adviser during a secret meeting in a Manhattan hotel room."
​

Can you believe that? I'm glad he's facing 80 yrs in jail.

 

We are blessed to have such a diligent public servant as Joon H Kim to conduct such a thorough investigation. We should also feel blessed that College Football wasn't affected.

Here is his chart of the entire scheme. Reminds me a lot of The Wire. Follow the money.



See how he has Players and Families in the middle of the flow of money. That is horrible. They don't deserve that treatment. Families and student-athletes need to be protected and taken out of the money loop. I'm glad he was able to follow the money to find these criminals and arrest them.