While Alabama basketball is surging, many in college basketball fear the FBI will topple many of the game’s top programs and coaches.
The months-long FBI investigation into college basketball his far from over. Court proceedings will take years to complete. Alabama basketball is so far not implicated in any criminal activity. Nor is there any indication the Alabama basketball program has violated any NCAA rules.
Very few of the details have been released by the FBI. Ten men were arrested for bribery and fraud. Despite legal efforts to have the charges dropped, all but one of them will go to trial. It is unclear how broadly the FBI wants to investigate college basketball. It is also not known how much information has been shared with the NCAA.
The NCAA will have access to more information than normal investigation
What is clear is that at some future date, the NCAA will be privy to information collected during over 300 days of FBI monitoring. What the NCAA will do with such a vast amount of information cannot be predicted.
To the extent crimes have been committed, federal prosecution is likely to put some people behind bars. Recently, lawyers for three defendants failed to get charges dropped against two Adidas executives and a sports agent. A total of nine defendants are scheduled for trial within the next 15 months.
As reported by ESPN, the lawyers argued what the defendants are accused of doing was not a crime. ESPN explained the accusations,
"allegedly funneling money from Adidas to the families of high-profile recruits to ensure that the players signed with Adidas-sponsored schools and then Adidas and certain sports agents and financial planners once they turned pro"
The FBI investigation has already taken a toll on a college program. Rick Pitino and Tom Jurich are no longer employed by Lousiville due to their alleged involvement in offering money to a prized recruit. One of the 10 defendants had his charges dropped. According to ESPN, his defense was,
"he never gave the money he received from the (other) defendants to a high school player they wanted to sign with Miami. Instead, (he) kept the money for himself."
How widespread is the ‘pay for play’ practice?
Three assistant coaches, including former Auburn assistant, Chuck Person may serve jail terms. The lawyer for another of the charged coaches, Jeffery Einhorn said in defense of his client.
"These people are part of a situation that is much bigger than them. It’s hard for me to say with a straight face that these people charged are outliers. This is what NCAA basketball is, and it’s been that way for a long time."
Yahoo Sports has followed the FBI investigation closely for months. If their unnamed sources are correct, the long-term impact could stagger the game of college basketball.
"In terms of NCAA rules, multiple sources told Yahoo Sports that the material obtained threatens the fundamental structure and integrity of the sport, as there’s potentially as many 50 college basketball programs that could end up compromised in some way."
What does this mean for Alabama basketball?
Again, there is nothing to indicate Alabama basketball is one of those 50 programs. One of the criticisms of Anthony Grant was recruiting failures. A few informed followers of Alabama basketball have said Grant basically ignored AAU coaches and all handlers, not player guardians.
Never having been a college coach until three seasons ago, Avery Johnson has little experience with the seamy side of college basketball. Both Anthony and Avery are believed to be men of high character. As Alabama fans, we hope their strong character saved them from any wrongdoing.
Even with a clean program, Alabama basketball may suffer. If the Yahoo sources are correct, throughout the world of college basketball the guilty and the non-guilty will suffer by a game tarnished.
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We recommend reading the entire ESPN and Yahoo articles linked above. Our summary did not cover everything in those two well-presented stories.