Latest allegations darken game as tournament nears
The first blow to college basketball came in September, when a federal investigation revealed hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks being funneled to influence recruits. The games went on under the dark cloud hanging over the sport, the season playing out while everyone wondered when the other sneaker would drop.
It did on Friday, when a Yahoo Sports report revealed documents from the federal inquiry showing more than two dozen players and their relatives received a wide range of impermissible benefits, from meals to five-figure payments. This second black eye comes 16 days before the field of 68 is selected for the sport’s marquee event, the NCAA Tournament.
“These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said. “People who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports.”
After the Yahoo Sports report, ESPN, citing unnamed sources, reported that FBI wiretaps intercepted telephone conversations between Arizona coach Sean Miller and would-be agent Christian Dawkins in which Miller discussed a $100,000 payment to ensure Deandre Ayton signed with the Wildcats. Ayton, a 7-foot-1 freshman from the Bahamas, paces Pac-12-leading Arizona with 53 blocked shots and averages of 19.6 points and 10.9 rebounds. He is expected to be one of the top picks in the NBA draft.
Arizona’s Emanuel “Book” Richardson was among four major-college assistant coaches fired after they were arrested and charged in the bribery and corruption case. Richardson and Miller had a longtime association, having worked together for 10 seasons at Arizona and, previously, Xavier.
Now that these latest blows have been struck, two questions arise: What can the NCAA do about it? Do fans even care?
In September, the Justice Department arrested 10 people, including assistant coaches from Arizona, USC, Auburn and Oklahoma State. The federal investigation alleged bribes and kickbacks were used to influence star players’ choice of schools, shoe sponsors, agents, tailors. Payments of up to $150,000, supplied by Adidas, were promised to at least three top high school recruits to attend two schools sponsored by the shoe company, according to federal prosecutors.
The documents obtained by Yahoo include bank records and expense reports from former NBA agent Andy Miller and his agency, ASM Sports. Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky and Michigan State are among the schools involved.
The documents, obtained in the discovery phase of the investigation, also link current players including Duke’s Wendell Carter and Alabama’s Collin Sexton to potential benefits that would be violations of NCAA rules.
The NCAA was obviously outraged, but the documents have not been made public and the organization can’t take action against schools or players based upon a report by a news agency. No. 2 Michigan State cleared star forward Miles Bridges on Saturday. The Spartans close their regular season today at Wisconsin and can win the Big Ten title outright with a victory.
Interim athletic director Bill Beekman says the school’s compliance office conducted a review after learning of the Yahoo Sports article, which mentioned Bridges, Friday and giving the findings to the NCAA.