This story is just developing. You are reading it right. Four assistants at big programs have been indicted.
Four NCAA Division 1 assistant and associate coaches, and an Adidas executive, are among 10 suspects indicted Tuesday on federal corruption and fraud charges.
The coaches, Lamont Evans of Oklahoma State, Chuck Person of Auburn University, Emanuel Richardson of the University of Arizona and Tony Bland the University of Southern California, are accused of accepting thousands of dollars in bribes to steer players toward particular financial advisers, and in Person's case, also a suit retailer.
"By allegedly accepting bribes, the four coaches not only breached their obligations to their schools, violated NCAA rules and betrayed the trust of their players," Joon Kim, acting U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York, said at a Tuesday press conference. "They also committed serious federal crimes, as did the managers and advisers who paid them."
I love to watch college basketball, but the dirty business of the top programs makes me sick. I am hoping this will bring it back to the level of a true amateur sport. I am not one who thinks players should be paid, beyond their athletic scholarships, but I don’t think schools should be making money from athletics either, and coaches should be making salaries in line with similar university employees.
Right now, the indicted coaches are all assistants, but you can bet the head coaches are involved. They just keep their distance, so there is not easy, direct evidence. The indicted assistants will roll on them soon. I suspect this will engulf 100 programs and a couple of hundred coaches. From the Yahoo Sports story.
While some other major schools and national championship coaches are not specifically named yet, nearly any college basketball fan can put the dots together on some of the recruiting stories to figure out who is who. The names that are expected to come out will be prominent.
Stay tuned...