Frank Fanelli

On Tuesday, the United States Department of Justice announced that alleged fraud and corruption charges have been brought to 10 people related to college basketball, including four assistant coaches. The coaches mentioned in the report are Oklahoma State’s Lamont Evans, Auburn’s Chuck Person, Arizona’s Emanuel Richardson and USC’s Tony Bland. Arizona has since suspended Richardson from their coaching staff in the wake of the news.

The U.S. Department of Justice also said that those arrested include “managers, financial advisors, and representatives of a major international sportswear company”. It’s alleged that the arrested coaches bribed recruits in an effort to steer them toward certain agents and financial advisors. Also, James Gatto, the director of global sports marketing at Adidas, was arrested.

Adidas later stated the company was “unaware of any misconduct and will fully cooperate with the authorities to understand more.” This approach makes sense due to the level of their people involved along with the severity of the allegations. If it was found to be institutional, this could create a black mark for Adidas in college hoops.

Chuck Person

The four coaches were arrested late Monday. Chuck Person is accused of accepting payments from an agent trying to develop a business relationship with some of Auburn’s players, including Austin Wiley. Richardson, Evans, and Bland are accused of similar crimes. According to documents, Richardson was also caught with a wiretap discussing using money to recruit a prospect for Arizona. Auburn suspended Person without pay Tuesday afternoon. USC also placed Tony Bland on leave and hired an FBI director to conduct an internal investigation regarding the federal probe.

Christian Dawkins, who is an NBA agent, was one of the 10 men who was arrested. According to the papers that were released, he told an unidentified Louisville coach they would have to be “particularly careful” with how they passed money to Bowen and his family because Louisville was already on thin ice with the NCAA (probation). The Louisville coach agreed, and said, “We gotta be very low key.”

This tweet perfectly describes the circle of what happened when these coaches made this step:

Emmanuel “Book” Richardson

I wouldn’t be surprised if the other coach involved got suspended. If the accusations become true and these men are found guilty of these charges the NCAA will be shook. This has the chance of becoming one of the biggest scandals in the NCAA in a looooooong time! Along with the controversy, it will also give the ground for people to increase the narrative of paying players. If players are paid, these types of shady dealings are not necessary.

On the other hand, it gives the NCAA an ability to continue the holdout as a form of punishment to programs and agents. The sanctions that are sure to come about will most likely have serious impacts on the relationships between college programs and professional scouts. It also may affect the relationships between programs and their apparel providers. Regardless, the fallout from this controversy will be huge and we should hope for a quick resolution so it will not dominate the narrative of the entire season.