Scandal Hits NCAA

There's no real big secret that extra bonuses that are thrown at recruits to come play at a school. Its a frowned upon practice by the NCAA, but schools still do it anyway. now it has gotten worse. If you hadn't heard the story already, at least 20 Division I men's basketball programs have been identified as possibly breaking NCAA rules through violations that were uncovered by the FBI's investigation into corruption in the sport, according to documents published by Yahoo! Sports. And this was made even worse when the story came out, through ESPN, in which the FBI had wiretaps conversations between Arizona coach Sean Miller and Christian Dawkins, a key figure in the FBI's investigation into college basketball corruption. During those conversations, Miller had discussed paying $100,000 to ensure star freshman Deandre Ayton signed with the Wildcats, sources familiar with the government's evidence told ESPN.

Let's backtrack a little with this before we dive into the money issue. For a long time now, it has been well covered in college athletics as to how to recruit top players to schools. Sure, there was the education, but more then that was offered. Schools would try and buy cars and clothes and things like that to get players to attend. That was all off the records of course, and none of the people associated with the school had any knowledge of the situations. Now the allegations are being upped to money being paid to the players to come play at schools. The wire tap with Seam Miller and discussing $100,000 being negotiated for a player to play at Arizona is documented proof about money being involved. Its also being reported that its not just Arizona that's had this scandal. According to a report through ABC, schools such as Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Michigan State, USC and Kansas have been named. Then there's at least 25 players are linked to impermissible benefits, including Michigan State's Miles Bridges, Alabama's Collin Sexton and Duke's Wendell Carter. All of those guys were left out of playing in games this past weekend.

Now as far as the Sean Miller story goes, some people have had differing reports as to when the call was made, whether it was in 2016 or 2017. Every indication is looking like now that it was made in 2017, which is a real problem for Arizona. Oh but wait there's more. According to a report on Yahoo Sports, at least six players were identified as having received payments exceeding $10,000. Some of the players on that list are Dallas Mavericks point guard Dennis Smith Jr., who received $73,500 in loans from ASM before he played for NC State. Then there's Brooklyn Nets shooting guard Isaiah Whitehead, who received more than $37,000 around the time he was at Seton Hall. And then there's the top draft pick in the 2017 NBA draft Markelle Fultz, who received $10,000. NCAA administrators are working hard to see if these allegations are true or not and if they are, the NCAA is working hard to try and get them fixed. No word yet as to what might happen to these schools if the rumors are true and money did change hands. I have a feeling that its going to be way worse then what recently happened to Louisville with the scandal that just rocked that school.

Again stuff along these lines has been going on in college athletics for a long time now, not that I'm saying its right, I'm just stating something that most people have probably already figured out. This will be leading to the debate as to whether or not college athletes should receive some kind of compensation for their abilities. I thought the whole point of going to college was to get an education and that athletics was an extracurricular activity. A lot has changed in that thought process. now most athletes go to school one year, which is now being required for athletes, before they jump to the pro ranks. And most athletes, once they do turn pro, do go on and finish their educations either during, or after their playing careers are over. The idea of athletes getting paid to play in college is looked down upon by the schools, but with the trend of recent years, it looks like paying players for what they do may actually turn into a reality. I'm sure this happens in some of the other sports as well, but Basketball and Football are the sports that are at the top of the list. The reason is because those sports bring the most money into the schools.

So what will happen with the NCAA ruling on these allegations? Will the practice continue? Only time will tell