Here are the major schools named in the FBI's college basketball investigation
The biggest scandal to hit college basketball since the infamous CCNY point-shaving scandal in 1950 has intensified.
When news of the FBI’s sweeping bribery and corruption investigation broke last September, Arizona, Auburn, Louisville, Miami, Oklahoma State and USC were among the programs identified in the probe, with some coaches facing criminal charges.
Now Yahoo Sports has revealed other schools involved in the years-long investigation, and the list includes some of the most storied programs in the sport.
Former NBA agent Andy Miller, best known for representing Kevin Garnett and Chauncey Billups during their pro careers, and his company ASM Sports saw their records, including expense reports and balance sheets, combed by federal agents looking for any signs of impropriety.
The net result of all this could lead to postseason bans and players losing their eligibility.
The schools named in the Yahoo report? Try Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Michigan State, Alabama — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
And the players? Besides hotshot Dallas Mavericks rookie and dunk contest participant Dennis Smith Jr. (N.C. State) and 2017 top overall draft pick Markelle Fultz (Washington), they also include current collegians Miles Bridges of Michigan State, Collin Sexton of Alabama and Wendell Carter of Duke.
In addition, NBA and G-League players Isaiah Whitehead, Tim Quarterman, Diamond Stone and Bam Adebayo were listed in the probe.
By extension, Seton Hall, LSU, Maryland and Kentucky, are thus implicated.
Other names on Miller’s rogues’ gallery? Fred VanVleet of the Raptors and Wichita State and Kyle Kuzma of the Lakers and the University of Utah.
The Yahoo report also lists Clemson, Creighton, Iowa State, Kansas, Notre Dame, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Xavier as schools whose players (or their families or handlers) received payments from or had meetings with ASM Sports.
NCAA rules prohibit any contact with pro agents; to accept money from one, even as a loan, is tantamount to signing with one. To conceal this information is not only a rules violation but possibly a federal crime.
NCAA President Mark Emmert released a statement Friday reacting to the latest news:
“These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America. Simply put, people who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports. They are an affront to all those who play by the rules.
“Following the Southern District of New York’s indictments last year, the NCAA Board of Governors and I formed the independent Commission on College Basketball, chaired by Condoleezza Rice, to provide recommendations on how to clean up the sport. With these latest allegations, it’s clear this work is more important now than ever. The Board and I are completely committed to making transformational changes to the game and ensuring all involved in college basketball do so with integrity. We also will continue to cooperate with the efforts of federal prosecutors to identify and punish the unscrupulous parties seeking to exploit the system through criminal acts.”
Depending on your perspective, this is either a massive case of corruption that threatens to bring down the very edifice of college sports and the purity of amateurism …
Or a sign that a sports system that relies on young men who are not compensated commensurate with the value they bring into a multibillion-dollar industry is inevitably doomed to the players wanting to get theirs.
Either way, the fallout from the FBI’s investigation will be with us for a long time.
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