S--- is about to hit the fan in college basketball.
In a huge scandal brought to light over the past few days following an FBI investigation, 10 men were charged with using hundreds of thousands of dollars as bribes to influence top recruits’ choice of schools, agents, shoe sponsors, etc.
Four of them were assistant coaches at Auburn, Oklahoma State, Arizona and Southern California, and among the other six are an agent, a marketing director at Adidas and a financial adviser.
And on Wednesday, Louisville coach Rick Pitino and athletic director Tom Jurich were placed on leave after allegations made against Louisville included Adidas paying $100,000 to an unknown player’s family — who is believed to be five-star guard Brian Bowen — to ensure he signs with the Cardinals.
It’s a scandal that will rock college basketball as we know it. There’s no knowing what surface was just scratched, or how much deeper this case will go.
Who knows what those assistant coaches will say about their head coaches, or what other programs will come to light as a part of this investigation.
“We have your playbook,” an FBI spokesperson said in a news conference on Tuesday. “If you are involved in this, call us. It would be better for you to call us than for us to call you.”
A colleague of mine told me a way to avoid something like this happening in the future is to pay the college athletes, arguing there wouldn’t be a need to do any of this if they were making money.
I couldn’t agree more.
The way I see it, this goes far beyond that argument and it goes far beyond any talks of blaming the athletes for this issue.
This is a moral and ethical issue. The idea that these coaches and other people associated with college basketball knew what they were doing was wrong and still went ahead with it shows that there is a there is a problem with how the NCAA is handling its coaches and athletes.
If a legendary coach like Pitino has to stoop so low as to allow a company to pay a high school athlete’s family to play for him, it shows that there needs to be some sort of change in how things are being done. Louisville’s program has already lost its only two recruits in the class of 2018, and Auburn’s program announced that season ticket holders can return the tickets for a refund.
Some sort of agreement needs to be put in place that allows athletes to receive compensation for the money they bring into the school.
It needs to happen soon, or the NCAA will be going through more scandals like this in the future.
Jake Dreilinger is a sports writer. Contact him at jdreilinger@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @DreilingerJake.
FILE - In this Jan. 4, 2017, file photo, Louisville head coach Rick Pitino looks on as his team falls behind late in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.Louisville announced Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017, that they have placed basketball coach Rick Pitino and athletic director Tom Jurich on administrative leave amid an FBI probe. (AP Photo/Robert Franklin, File)
