March Madness opens Tuesday amid scandals

From the top seed in the NCAA Tournament — Virginia — to those that barely made it into the bracket — Arizona State and Syracuse — it seems as though everyone involved in March Madness is on the bubble this year.

U.S. college basketball is in trouble.

The brackets came out Sunday, replete with the usual fanfare.

Villanova, Kansas and Xavier joined Virginia as No. 1 seeds, but they, along with the other 64 contenders, will play against the backdrop of an investigation-riddled season in which bribes and payoffs made bigger headlines than threepointers and layups.

The tournament begins Tuesday with opening-round games featuring a matchup of bubble teams UCLA and St. Bonaventure, then kicks into full swing Thursday and Friday at eight sites.

The Final Four is March 31 and April 2 in San Antonio.

Shortly after that, a commission led by former U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice is expected to deliver recommendations from an investigation triggered by an FBI probe that led to charges last fall against assistant coaches, agents, employees of apparel companies and others.

No fewer than a dozen of the 68 teams in the tournament have been named either in the FBI investigation or in media reports that allege coaches and others have directed payments and improper benefits to recruits and players, thus breaking rules that go to the core of the amateur-sports code that defines and regulates both the NCAA and the student athletes who make the billion-dollar business run.

They range from teams that made it into the tournament off the so-called bubble — Alabama — to one of the best teams in the country.

Arizona, a No. 4 seed in the South, has been roiled by a report that wiretaps caught coach Sean Miller discussing a US$100,000 payment to freshman Deandre Ayton.