As the effects of the FBIs investigation into 20 D-1 major hoops programs continues to rock college basketball and smear the names of some of the game’s flagship programs, it becomes more obvious that the student-athletes are the ones who truly suffer from such illegal activities between coaches, agents, boosters and major companies.
With the FBIs aggressive investigative tactics of exposing even the smallest amount of money exchanged between coaches, administrators agents and players, college programs are running scared and stepping forward to self-report amounts that are laughable but serious now that the NCAA and college basketball has a federal bullseye on its back.
The Auburn men’s basketball program self-reported to the compliance department following an incident after Saturday’s loss to SEC-rival Florida in which Gators fans heaped money at Tigers players heading to the locker room.
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Gators fans handing Auburn players money after the game while chanting “F-B-I” https://t.co/VSvoXivExp
Gators fans also chanted, “FBI!” in response to former Tigers associate head coach Chuck Person losing his job after being implicated in the probe about illegal benefits being provided to players and recruits as part of the countrys major basketball programs million dollar player wars.
The money is definitely shorts, but the atmosphere around the program is sensitive and potentially volatile enough for coach Bruce Pearl to decide he wanted to take no chances as it relates to potential NCAA implications.
“It was real money, and I think there’s $5 or $6 that are out there, and because you guys know we’re compliant, we’ve actually turned that money over to compliance,” Pearl said via AL.com. “Really. I don’t know, it was five or six bucks, but our people have the money. I don’t know what they’re going to do with it, probably give it to charity, but we’ve already self-reported.”
We will see more programs come out of the woodwork and self-report activities (like giving a kid a couple dollars to eat) that have been common place for decades. Such self-reporting will also lead to more discussion about the NCAA as an egregious and exploitative governing body. The discussion will now move to whether or not paying players for their likeness, sacrifices and money-generating accomplishments will solve the issue of student athletes seeking financial compensation as the NCAA needs to become more realistic about the financial burdens of students athletes and their families in an increasingly changing economic climate.
