Shoe money trial

[Geezer]

And Preston never played.

[Mjl]

If Kansas coaches knew, why did they not play him?

[jfish26]

Are we seriously not talking about this?

Bowen said Dawkins originally mentioned they could get $60-80K from Adidas for going to Louisville, but it rose to $100K because "Billy Preston had gotten $100K" from Adidas for going to Kansas.

This is a good example of why I’m not worried - based on what is known right now - about our fate.

Bowen said that Dawkins said that adidas paid money for Preston to go to KU.

For the NCAA to do something based on that (or an equivalent situation with Silvio), when there are two dozen other known, thorny, similar situations at other schools...it’s just not going to happen.

[ousdahl]

and, as has been stated before, this is all a testament to how the NCAA clearinghouse is an absolute fucking joke.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-baske ... n-by-ncaa/

[NewtonHawk11]

How about Creighton getting into the mix at $100K with a good job for the dad. Even freaking Creighton is doing it!

[DCHawk1]

Jesuits.

Fucking Jesuits.

[Deleted User 75]

Are we seriously not talking about this?

Bowen said Dawkins originally mentioned they could get $60-80K from Adidas for going to Louisville, but it rose to $100K because "Billy Preston had gotten $100K" from Adidas for going to Kansas.

This is a good example of why I’m not worried - based on what is known right now - about our fate.

Bowen said that Dawkins said that adidas paid money for Preston to go to KU.

For the NCAA to do something based on that (or an equivalent situation with Silvio), when there are two dozen other known, thorny, similar situations at other schools...it’s just not going to happen.

Or they'll punish everyone and a few dozen coaches will be out of a job.

I think it's overly hopefully that nothing happens to anyone over this. The ncaa has told Pitino they'll do their own investigation once this is over, but until then he can't coach in the NCAA....so I find it hard to believe they'll only investigate so that people can be cleared but not punished.

[jfish26]

Are we seriously not talking about this?

Bowen said Dawkins originally mentioned they could get $60-80K from Adidas for going to Louisville, but it rose to $100K because "Billy Preston had gotten $100K" from Adidas for going to Kansas.

This is a good example of why I’m not worried - based on what is known right now - about our fate.

Bowen said that Dawkins said that adidas paid money for Preston to go to KU.

For the NCAA to do something based on that (or an equivalent situation with Silvio), when there are two dozen other known, thorny, similar situations at other schools...it’s just not going to happen.

Or they'll punish everyone and a few dozen coaches will be out of a job.

I think it's overly hopefully that nothing happens to anyone over this. The ncaa has told Pitino they'll do their own investigation once this is over, but until then he can't coach in the NCAA....so I find it hard to believe they'll only investigate so that people can be cleared but not punished.

Oh I would be shocked if the NCAA (did the smart thing and) came out and cleared anyone or anything. I am very confident they'll do the chickenshit thing and leave all of it in the grayest of gray areas.

I am far less confident, though, that they'll punish everyone and a few dozen coaches will be out of a job. Not over something that hasn't even touched Nike yet.

[holidaysmore]

Jesuits.

Fucking Jesuits.

Hahaha this is more for you, NewtonHawk but if Bethel College is mentioned in this trial the scandal has come full circle.

In all seriousness throughout this whole trial just about every major D1 school is going to get mentioned at some point and time and if they aren’t if a school like Creighton is throwing 100k then you are telling me that the Duke, UK’s, KU, etc aren’t.
How is the NCAA going to handle that?

[jfish26]

Preach.

College basketball fraud trial: We're at this point because the NCAA is ethically bankrupt

https://sports.yahoo.com/college-basket ... 46567.html

The real issue is: Why is this even a problem? Or shocking? Maybe for those who haven’t been paying attention or came of age at a time when high school sophomore basketball players weren’t worth a dime.

Is it in non-compliance of NCAA rules? Absolutely. But isn’t that the tail wagging the dog?

If a multinational, multibillion dollar corporation wants to identify a teenager, negotiate a deal with his parents and pay him significant money to go work for them in the summer, then why would anyone care, other than to congratulate the Bowens?

Call it a (well-)paid internship if you will. No one is getting hurt here. No one.

And if Adidas’ real motivation was to establish a relationship with a kid who projects to be a coveted and highly valued employee down the road, then would anyone care if a Silicon Valley tech company did the same with the members of a math team it views as future coding geniuses?

The college basketball bribery trial that continues next week in federal court here is ostensibly to resolve wire fraud and conspiracy charges against would-be sports agent Christian Dawkins and Adidas executives Jim Gatto and Merl Code.

What it’s really about is the federal government codifying NCAA rules into laws. Watching prosecutors fumble about in that attempt last week only further revealed the absurdity of the task.

“I’ve seen better presentations,” Judge Lewis A. Kaplan cracked earlier this week after one clumsy argument.

On one side, the government is pointing to NCAA documents and official-sounding statues as what is right. And on the other there are witnesses such as Bowen (a prosecution witness no less) pulling back the curtain and showing what’s real – namely that the wheels of capitalism make the NCAA rulebook obsolete and everyone, absolutely everyone, inside the sport knows it.

In this country, you are worth what someone will pay you. Unless you’re a college athlete. Or, these days, even project to be a college athlete. It’s bad enough for the NCAA to try to limit compensation while the players are enrolled and receiving a full scholarship – a valuable deal but well below market value for top talent.

It’s unconscionable for the NCAA to say its rules also apply years before a player is of college age, while providing no guarantee the player would be a college athlete. If these are truly amateurs, then the NCAA should have less control over them, not more. And while players don’t technically have to go to college, the NCAA is well aware that under current NFL and NBA draft rules, they pretty much do.

[...]

If the NCAA just allowed the Bowens to take that job with Adidas, then none of this is a problem. Instead they had to do everything under the table, and link up with an uncertified agent and two back-channeling shoe executives that caused all of them to wind up in court. At one point Bowen Sr. testified Adidas’ Chris Rivers handed him $4,000 in cash in the parking lot of an AAU event. It was the start of many secret payments as the Bowens meandered through the system.

Everyone involved wishes this could just be done out in the open.

The NCAA, however, would rather say that a family – or any family of a kid who might (but with no guarantee) play college hoops – remain poor (or poorer) because … well, just because.

That’s all this is. You can’t help your family with the bills. You can’t earn money to put away for your future. You can’t get your mother into a better apartment. You have to wait and hope the same opportunity is there later.

We, however, can switch jobs and renegotiate contracts and take millions and millions in Adidas dollars.

Why? Who knows? Is there concern the shoe company would then have a say in the player’s college decision? Well, that’s been going on for decades. Are they worried this will somehow “ruin” the player? Please check your paternalism and puritanism.

No, this is about control, including controlling finances. A college scholarship is compensation and is not worthless. However, it is only applicable when the athlete arrives on campus. At the very least, the NCAA should be hands off until enrollment.

Amateurism may not do much for the kids, but it sure is lucrative for the coaches, conference commissioners and athletic directors who cling to it.

For people such as NCAA president Mark Emmert, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany and Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby to deny Tugs Bowen a job, to tell him and his family they need to keep scraping by in Saginaw because there is some nobility in being an amateur, is ethically bankrupt.

[...]

A multinational corporation allegedly went to Saginaw and offered a high school sophomore a glorious opportunity. It could help him. It could help his family. It could help his future.

The NCAA finds this objectionable, a bad and terrible thing that must be stomped out, even prosecuted.

It seems like the wrong people are on trial here.

[Deleted User 75]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BokivIZgVCH ... 1ju7r9ayyp

[NewtonHawk11]

According to Dickie V, some really big names are going to be mentioned in court tomorrow and it will be a "big nightmare for some coaches and schools"

[Deleted User 57]

From Dickie V.....
A source involved in the @FBI hoops investigation told me there could be some testimony tomorrow that can create a big nightmare for some coaches & schools / stay tuned ! And Coach K's dick tastes like a butterscotch Life Saver. @espn

[ousdahl]

Has Self or any other coaches commented on this?

[jfish26]

I missed this on Friday.

In Adidas college hoops trial, everyone agrees on facts. Will NCAA take action?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/c ... story.html

According to a person close to NCAA enforcement who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak, federal authorities have asked the NCAA to hold off on any investigations related to the Justice Department probe until the conclusion of the last trial, which could come as late as summer 2019. [1] Four college assistants are scheduled to stand separate trials next spring, and federal authorities could bring charges against others not yet arrested.

“We are closely monitoring the trial of three individuals charged with corruption in college basketball,” NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn said Friday in a statement. “If information relevant to potential NCAA violations is uncovered, we will continue to follow up and investigate all the facts.” [2]

[...]

Over the course of the first three days, the defense lawyers repeatedly attempted, without success, to introduce evidence that showed a five-star recruit such as Tugs generates millions in revenue for colleges and that NCAA rules regarding shoe company money flowing to families aren't as clear cut as federal prosecutors have claimed. The attempts brought frequent objections from the prosecution, and Judge Lewis Kaplan mostly sided with the prosecutors.

During one such exchange, Kaplan told an attorney for Gatto, "Good luck in the court of appeals with that one." [3]

1. This is obviously huge for KU with respect to Silvio's availability. Unless we know something the NCAA does not (yet) know, there's zero reason to sit him now.

2. This, to me, is a bit of a tell. The NCAA is very clearly worried about (at least the appearance of) acting on testimony and evidence developed in this criminal case, without its own investigation.

3. I'm dying to know more here - I think that Kaplan has likely found evidence as to the players' real value to be irrelevant to the charges at hand, but it would still be interesting to hear more detail on this point.

[ousdahl]

Regarding point 3, could the players or recruits ever bring any sort of suit against the ncaa?

[jfish26]

Regarding point 3, could the players or recruits ever bring any sort of suit against the ncaa?

Could they? Sure. But it's hard when there's nothing like a union, and where an individual player's damages are necessarily pretty limited and short-term in nature.

[ousdahl]

Yeah. Sigh.


Like that article said, if these kids are truly amateurs then the ncaa should regulate them less, not more. They shouldn’t have The Rules imposed upon them when there’s no guarantee they’re even gonna be a college athlete.

[BLACKMILD33]

Has Self or any other coaches commented on this?

THEY HAVE SAID NO COMMENTED

[Deleted User 75]

1. This is obviously huge for KU with respect to Silvio's availability. Unless we know something the NCAA does not (yet) know, there's zero reason to sit him now.

.

I guess the main reason would be so that we don't open ourselves up to having to vacate any additional wins...and by the letter of the "law" that could very well be a possibility.