Yikes! As many as 3 dozen Division I basketball programs could face NCAA penalties

[KCKUKFan]

I thought we were recruiting him, at one time.

Cal backed off. Same with Miles Bridges.

That fact alone makes me feel more comfortable with this situation.

[Dwight Schrute]

The fact they have over 3,000 hours of wiretapped conversations is huge. That could bring a whoooole lot of people down.

[Matt Dillon]

A lot of coaching careers, some of well known coaches, will most likely be ended by this.

[KCKUKFan]

A part of me is envisioning Lester, McNulty and Bunk sitting on the wire, but rather than trying to bring down drug kingpins, they're working to bring down college basketball coaches.

I'm sure other "Wire" fans here can envision it, too. It's a delightful thought.

[TrueblueCATfan]

Sean Miller may be in some trouble...

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-bas...-investigation

this is not good...don't see anyway Miller keeps his job

[George]

A part of me is envisioning Lester, McNulty and Bunk sitting on the wire, but rather than trying to bring down drug kingpins, they're working to bring down college basketball coaches.

I'm sure other "Wire" fans here can envision it, too. It's a delightful thought.

Follow the money.

[Joneslab]

Anybody with half a brain could see that Deandre Ayton's recruitment was filthy from the start.

[George]

Any of you watched Ayton this season? My lord, he’s a freak of nature.

[Catsrock]

The NCAA can and will act appalled at all of this but they have no one to blame but themselves. Their own greed and favoritism created the entire system.

Greed--they don't even have to pay players a stipend. They could just allow players to profit from their own name/image/popularity. Wouldn't even affect their amateur status if not for their self created definition of amateurism. A player can make money--not just in a business venture--but even playing a sport--as long as its not the sport they're competing in in college (Weeden at OK St--baseball). Selling t-shirts with your name on them or having autograph signings for money is not getting payed to play on a team. The schools and NCAA make millions from your popularity but you make $5 and you're ineligible. That's greed.

Not every player would profit a lot. Basically you would have 2 types of college players. Most would be like I would have been--thrilled and amazed to get a free education and live like a king for 4 years while earning life-long popularity with the fanbase. No one would pay $50 for my autograph and I'd be fine with that. Then you'd have the real stars. These are the guys to whom a required year of college is merely an impediment to their getting rich. They're also the ones putting butts in the seats and generating revenue. There's no (good) reason why them profiting from their name would have to destroy their amateur status since they're not being payed to play.

These stars have known for years before they're college age that they could profit from their skills. If their family situation is dire enough what would keep them from taking money even if they knew for a fact that it would come out by the time they've been a pro for a few years? Rich folks in Indianapolis require they remain impoverished while making millions for the association. If I were poor that would be difficult reality to accept.

Favoritism--this is the one that's eaten at me for years. The NCAA claims that is nothing more than the member institutions. However it's handing out punishments is much worse than arbitrary. Clear evidence of major violations brings entirely different responses depending on who you are. Some scandals (such as UCLA boosters paying players handsomely as far back as the 60's and 70's and this being put in print by an insider--Bill Walton) don't even draw an investigation--and certainly no vacation of wins and titles. Other situations (UNC) the NCAA tries to let it go away quietly but public outcry forces them to feign an investigation while actually getting together with them behind closed doors and deciding how they can make it go away with ZERO penalty. Still others (Duke) they simply change their own previous precedent to protect their favorites. When Derick Rose didn't help the NCAA with their investigation he was ruled ineligible and wins were vacated. They literally made the statement that they have no choice--any time an ineligible player competes the results are vacated. Zero tolerance! Literally within months Corey Maggette didn't cooperate with investigation at Duke and the NCAA said "well, we look at it on a case to case basis."

The coaches have signed contracts and I'm sure every one of them have agreed to follow NCAA rules. Therefore when coaches are involved like Pitino and Miller--they're done. But if agents get to the parent/handlers/friends of a poor kid and tell him no one will ever know about a few thousand dollars and his coach and school are all in the clear? If I didn't have food on the table every night and thought that Mark Emmert and the fat-cats in Indy were the only ones I was cheating I'd be pretty tempted.

It's crossroads time for the NCAA. They'll either change some rules to share the wealth with those generating it OR the the big money schools will form something new and more fair. Still big $ will be involved which means corruption will still exist but there has to be an organization more capable of dealing with it.

My longest rant ever.

[KCKUKFan]

Any of you watched Ayton this season? My lord, he’s a freak of nature.

Something tells me he's not worth it.

[Catsrock]

Something tells me he's not worth it.

Not worth it for Arizona. For the NBA--he'll be tough. And bringing down his college coach? Not his problem.

[Joneslab]

Greed--they don't even have to pay players a stipend. They could just allow players to profit from their own name/image/popularity. Wouldn't even affect their amateur status if not for their self created definition of amateurism. A player can make money--not just in a business venture--but even playing a sport--as long as its not the sport they're competing in in college (Weeden at OK St--baseball). Selling t-shirts with your name on them or having autograph signings for money is not getting payed to play on a team. The schools and NCAA make millions from your popularity but you make $5 and you're ineligible. That's greed.

I've never understood how allowing college players to make some money when their name or image is used should be a problem for anyone.

The NCAA set up this weird all-or-nothing system where any attempt to make money ruins amateurism. It's just way too Draconian. There are Kentucky players over the years who could have made a lot of money in just local ads and so on. A lot of these guys weren't even great players.

What's the issue with that?

[Joneslab]

Bilas is saying on ESPN that the Sean Miller situation is "career-ending."

[Joneslab]

And just like Duke yesterday, UK just announced that they've performed an internal investigation and have found no violation of rules. Knox will continue to play (as he should).

[Lighthouse]

I don't remember when the NCAA was created, but I would imagine that in the beginning it was a honest and upright organization. Then, as happens so often, power, greed and personalities overcame it. Now the NCAA is a total dishonest mess and I see no way it escapes this intact.