The FBI is now cleaning up college hoops because the NCAA "never could," and now everyone "officially finds out about the cost of doing business in a world -- big-time college sports -- where everybody is supposed to get rich except the players," according to Mike Lupica of the N.Y. DAILY NEWS. The government is now going after the "shadow government of college basketball, and agents, and shoe companies that sometimes seem more powerful in this sport than the mob" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 9/28). In N.Y., Tracy & Ruiz in a front-page piece note the "fundamental truth about high tops and cleats -- that getting top players in your brand and keeping them there is good business -- was the subtext of a critical piece of a corruption and bribery network" outlined Tuesday by federal prosecutors. The nexus of grass-roots teams, colleges and sneaker companies was a "significant portion of the criminal complaints," which "describe rampant under-the-table payments that were commonly inspired by a young athlete’s future earning potential" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/28). In DC, Deron Snyder writes, "Make no mistake, the NCAA absorbed a tremendous blow and individuals are trembling on campuses across the country." The feds "claim to possess the recruiting 'playbook,' so we might see coaches, runners and agents do more flipping than Cirque du Soleil." There is "no question that these developments can be as earth-shattering as the 1951 and 1961 point-shaving scandals that nearly killed college hoops" (WASHINGTON TIMES, 9/28).
JUST THE BEGINNING: In Houston, Jenny Dial Creech writes college basketball is "corrupt," and it is the "worst-kept secret in sports." This is "going to get worse as more information gets out" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 9/28). In K.C., Blair Kerkhoff writes, "Welcome to college basketball season, where we ponder who's going to the Final Four and who's going to prison" (K.C. STAR, 9/28). In Hartford, Jeff Jacobs writes the FBI is "threatening to blow the roof off the black market of college basketball recruiting." This investigation "could last for weeks or it could last for years." UConn coach Kevin Ollie said, "It's a dark day for our great game" (HARTFORD COURANT, 9/28).
TIME TO CHANGE? In Chicago, Rick Morrissey writes someone "surely will term this a wakeup call for college sports, but it only will be a wakeup call if it leads the NCAA and its institutions to start paying players." Morrissey: "Put enough money in the athletes’ pockets so that the majority of them won’t be tempted by offers of cash, cars, iPhones or whatever might get the attention of a young person. And get the NBA to lift its age limit. Let players turn professional straight out of high school." But the NCAA "doesn’t want to lose the golden goose to the NBA, even if the goose is around for only one season" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 9/28). In Colorado Springs, Vinny Benedetto wrote over the past 20 years, at least, the NCAA’s amateur model "absorbed body punch after body punch with each report of paying players." Tuesday's report "should be the knockout punch, and the NCAA should leave its model on the canvas." The NCAA is "incapable -- if not uninterested -- in policing its members" (GAZETTE.com, 9/27). In DC, John Feinstein writes what the FBI uncovered "isn't limited" to the schools mentioned on Tuesday. The NCAA "needs to be restructured into three separate entities: One to run football; one to run men's basketball; one to run nonrevenue sports." Make rules for "each that are enforceable and give whomever is in charge the power to make cheaters pay" (WASHINGTON POST, 9/28).
TOO MUCH MONEY INVOLVED: In Cleveland, Doug Lesmerises writes there is an "agent-coach-shoe company pipeline at the heart of this." It is about "connections and influence and the ability and willingness of schools and coaches to have players guided to them and, in return, to guide players to shoe companies and agents later." There are "payoffs involved with all of that" (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 9/28). A N.Y. TIMES editorial states that college basketball programs "unscrupulously compete for top players to earn more from the immense pot of profit from television." The complaints "cast a spotlight on that greed and hypocrisy, which is infesting what is supposed to be, but hasn’t been for some time, an innocent and amateur sport" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/28).
