The NCAA received a major mark against its reputation this past season. After years of saying they were incapable of paying players, and stating that the system they had in place was to "preserve amateurism" and "do whats best for the student-athlete," one scandal showed that all the talk was BS. The FBI filed charges of wire fraud, corruption, and bribery against coaches for multiple programs across the NCAA. NBA agent Andy Miller's office was raided and it came out that not only had almost every major program been paying players but that even the small schools like the University of Utah (Kyle Kuzma allegedly received payments) were involved.
The FBI's accusations
The FBI accusations were not received well. Coaches like Arizona's Sean Miller wholeheartedly denied every accusation. Fans claimed there was a witch hunt going on and openly questioned why the FBI was getting involved in college basketball when other things were going on. Players like Deandre Ayton claimed there was not a "shred of evidence" behind the accusations and the NCAA started to sweat as they faced the possibility of a tournament in which most of the major players would be ruled ineligible.
As the season continued on we heard less and less about the initial scandal, chatter about players being suspended died down, and the initial reporters of the story were accused of jumping the gun and attempting to make up the news instead of report the news.
It looked like the NCAA might be able to slither their way out of one the biggest scandals in Sports history. However, the hopes of the scandal going away quietly have likely ended with Tuesday's revelations. On Tuesday the U.S Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York charged Joe 'Jim' Gatto with additional wire fraud charges in cases involving athletes from NC State, University of Miami, and the University of Kansas.
Regardless of one's feelings on the legitimacy of the investigation or whether or not the FBI's time is better spent elsewhere it appears that the scandal is not going away.
Why the FBI is involved
Unlike previous college sports scandals, these payments were not simply alumni trying to get players to go to a school that they cheered for.
These payments are tied directly to shoe companies such as Addidas and agencies trying to get players to go to schools that would then funnel the player to the specific company or agency. This whole investigation started when multiple NFL players accused Louis Martin Blazer III of siphoning money from their accounts. This led to the SEC investigating Blazer. The SEC would ultimately charge Blazer with wire fraud and accuse him of using client money to make Ponzi-like payments.
The investigation into his misconduct led to the U.S Department of Justice releasing documents detailing Blazer's 14-year long wire fraud scheme: Blazer would sign players on to his agency by paying them while they where in college and use that leverage to convince them to allow him to be their agent, financial advisor, or business manager.
Blazer would then go on to defraud these athletes out of their hard-earned money.
Blazer would plead guilty to the charges and as part of his plea agreement, he agreed to be a cooperating witness in similar cases the FBI had against other sports agencies, apparel companies, coaches, and officials that use similar tactics in order to recruit clients. Despite what some have argued, the FBI is 100 percent justified in getting involved in these cases and this is time well spent.
