College athletes face a lot of pressure, particularly when it comes to becoming a professional athlete. Altogether, ten people were arrested on federal corruption charges. Within these ten people are four assistant basketball coaches from different universities around the country.
Who all faces these charges
Auburn's Chuck Person, Oklahoma State's Lamont Evans, Arizona's Emanuel Richardson and University of Southern California's Tony Bland have all been caught accepting thousands of dollars in bribes to push NBA-bound college athletes toward specific sports agents and financial advisers.
Aside from the coaches, the documents also list six other people. There's James Gatto, the director of global sports marketing for Adidas, Merl Code, who works for Adidas, Christian Dawkins, an NBA agent with previous charges, Jonathan Brad Augustine, program director of Adidas's 1 Family AAU program, Munish Sood, financial adviser, and Rashan Michel, a former NBA official.
Allegedly, there have been bribes to three different high school athletes. One case promised $100,000 if the athlete signed to an Adidas-sponsored school and another offered $150,000 for the same thing. One bribe was said to have offered payment installments if the player signed to a specific school.
The Fbi has been investigating an incident where the ten charged were found funneling $100,000 in installments to a certain player in order to bribe them to join a certain college's sports team.
The university is suspiciously similar to the University of Louisville, but it has not been officially named by the FBI.
The ongoing investigation of the influence of money
The FBI has been investigating the NCAA for the abuse of money and bribery since 2015. It appears that there are many instances in which coaches and other advisers have used their influence and money on players to get them to sign specific deals.
Most people would do anything for $100,000 or more. It's easy to see how high school and college athletes can be manipulated into making these deals. The issue becomes even bigger when the athletes have coaches telling them to take these deals, as coaches tend to be very big influences in athletes' lives.
Statements from the NCAA and Adidas
Unfortunately and suspiciously, the NCAA didn't have a lot to say on this matter. Spokeswoman Gail Dent said, "Nothing on this end. We'll let you know if that changes."
Adidas has stated that they are unaware if Gatto was allegedly paying high school players. The company released the following statement: "Today, we became aware that federal investigators arrested an Adidas employee. We are learning more about the situation. We're unaware of any misconduct and will fully cooperate with authorities to understand more."
