Some of the biggest college basketball universities, coaches, and blue-chip recruits have been caught up in an FBI dragnet investigating possible bribery and corruption among the NCAA’s ranks. The Feds allowed Yahoo Sports to view hundreds of pages of evidence, which apparently show no criminal wrongdoing, but do reveal several possible NCAA violations.
Yahoo’s report named 20 colleges connected to alleged malfeasance, including AP Top 25 teams Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State, North Carolina, and Arizona. Players identified included Michigan State’s Miles Bridges, Duke’s Wendell Carter, Jr., and Alabama’s Collin Sexton.
NCAA President Mark Emmert condemned the possible infractions in a statement, but did not say what type of disciplinary action would be taken.
“These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America,’” Emmert said. “Simply put, people who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports. They are an affront to all those who play by the rules.”
Arizona Hit with Sanctions
While the governing body of college sports hasn’t taken action, some schools are already moving in that direction. Arizona had already fired assistant coach Emanuel “Book” Richardson after the DOJ indicted him in September for allegedly accepting payments to steer players to a particular agent.
ESPN reported last week that the man who hired Richardson, head coach Sean Miller, was heard on a wiretap discussing a $100,000 payment to ensure star freshman Deandre Ayton signed with the Arizona Wildcats. Miller did not coach the team when they played Saturday at Oregon State.
Before his absence the team was a 1.5-point underdog. When news broke that the coach would be benched, the line rocketed up to 7.5 before settling at 4.5 just before game time. The Wildcats lost, 98-93.
Most college basketball observers speculate that Miller has coached his last game for Arizona. ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas said that he believes this is “a career-ending thing for Sean Miller. Career-ending. I can’t imagine him ever coaching in college again.”
Expect More Coaches to Be Ousted
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski have players that were named in the report. They, however, were not named in the FBI’s investigation.
Izzo, who had to defend his program against sexual misconduct allegations a month ago, denied in a statement that he or his staff were guilty.
“While we will cooperate with any and all investigations,” Izzo said, “we have no reason to believe that I, any member of our staff or student-athlete did anything in violation of NCAA rules.”
Krzyzewski cleared Carter, Jr., to play Saturday against Syracuse after he was mentioned in the report. The iconic coach said any alleged rules violation happened before players signed with a college.
Even though coaches have not been named BetOnline is offering odds that several won’t with their teams by April 3. Izzo and Krzyzewski are +300 they will leave or be fired. Kentucky’s John Calipari is a +275 and Bill Self of Kansas is +400.
