An exclusive recent report from Yahoo Sports makes it sound like the world of college basketball is about to be upended by a federal investigation.
Yahoo Sports reported the following on the situation:
Multiple sources who’ve been briefed on the case and are familiar with the material obtained by feds told Yahoo Sports that the impact on the sport will be substantial and relentless. Sitting under protective order right now are the fruits of 330 days of monitoring activity by the feds, which one assistant US Attorney noted Thursday was “a voluminous amount of material.” That includes wiretaps from 4,000 intercepted calls and thousands of documents and bank records obtained from raids and confiscated computers, including those from notorious NBA agent Andy Miller.
“This goes a lot deeper in college basketball than four corrupt assistant coaches,” said a source who has been briefed on the details of the case. “When this all comes out, Hall of Fame coaches should be scared, lottery picks won’t be eligible to play and almost half of the 16 teams the NCAA showed on its initial NCAA tournament show this weekend should worry about their appearance being vacated.”
Yahoo Sports also indicated that arrests aren’t likely in this investigation, and that the worst of it will reveal through discovery what college basketball programs have done against NCAA rules.
The first question I have is, what programs will be targeted and for what reasons? I have seen firsthand the corruption that can happen in college sports, and it can be bewildering at times. A person with close knowledge of major college sports programs told me there’s not a perennial top 25 team in basketball or football that isn’t trying to bend the rules a little bit. Others are just out here breaking them regularly. I was always hesitant to put a ton of stock in those claims.
That all changed when I saw it with my own eyes. It happens, and it happens often. Most programs have a “if the ends justify the means” mentality because all that really matters is winning, which I can’t hate on. It sounds like some major programs are about to be in major trouble. I’d be sweating right now if I was involved with any major college sports program. Trouble is clearly on the horizon.
The other thing to ask here is, why is the federal government wasting time involved with college sports? Aren’t there better things to do than investigate what’s happening in NCAA sports? Maybe I’m off base here, but I don’t really think people are going to care what investigators find. The schools obviously will, but the fans won’t. Again, all they care about is winning. The government’s time and resources are probably better spent elsewhere.