I know that I’ve said it here before, but I feel the need to say it again: I am perfectly fine with the Wisconsin Badgers never winning an NCAA Basketball Championship or a College Football Playoff title. I firmly believe that because I don’t want the school to lower itself to the level that so many other colleges are willing to go to for that type of success.
The latest example of the “cost of winning” came out yesterday, as federal prosecutors released indictments against assistant basketball coaches, agents, financial advisors and shoe company executives in a “pay to play” scheme involving many of the top basketball recruits in the country. In a nutshell, kids, their families and the assistant coaches were paid to steer recruits to certain schools that wore Adidas shoes–in hopes that if they were to achieve stardom in the NBA someday, they would “remain loyal to the company” with their endorsement deals.
Some of the top basketball schools in the country are involved in this: Arizona, Oklahoma State, South Carolina (which went to the Final Four last year) and not surprisingly at all, Louisville. In fact, the biggest payout provided to a player was the $100,000 that went to the family of a top recruit that chose Louisville almost out of nowhere last year. The indictment even details how an assistant coach at Louisville told the state’s informant that the scheme needed to be kept on the down low because “they are already on probation with the NCAA”.
That probation was due to Louisville providing prostitutes for recruits that attended on-campus parties arranged by a now-former assistant coach. A finding that may lead the NCAA to strip Louisville of its 2013 National Championship–as ineligible players may have taken part in those games. Cardinals Head Coach Rick Pitino claimed to have absolutely no knowledge of the hooker parties in the basketball players dorms–and of course, he had absolutely no knowledge of the family of his prized recruit get the 100-grand. We should note here that the sex party allegations were made shortly after Pitino himself was accused of raping a former mistress at a Louisville restaurant–which he maintained was consensual.
The federal prosecutors and the FBI both say that their investigation is on-going and that they will be looking into more basketball programs–especially those associated with Adidas (although I highly doubt they were the only shoe maker offering these “incentives” to top recruits). So I fully expect more major programs and high-profile coaches to be implicated soon.
But the next time you want to complain about how “boring” Paul Chryst and Badger Football are–or you want to ask why Greg Gard doesn’t get any five-star “one and done” guys to take Wisconsin Basketball back to the Final Four–consider the price you will be asking those programs to pay–and if you want to see them doing a “perp walk” in handcuffs someday.
