Bigborgel
Although I agree, I think we're entering a new phase when shoe/apparel companies are getting involved. I'm not suggesting that the Deans and administrators aren't complicit, mind you.... when a head coach, athletic director, etc. takes the mindset that they don't want to know what is going on - they're just as complicit as the head coach/athletic director who does know what's going on. And I'm not suggesting Pitino didn't know.... I think he did know. I'm sure a lot of these head coaches in these large Division 1 schools know more than they let on.
This (imo) is all segueing to a time where the discussion of paying collegiate athletes takes center stage. I personally don't feel that is a good option, however. But nevertheless - an argument can certainly be made that if the coaches/programs are cashing in with enormous salaries via the results of these star athletes - it's only logical to expect that these star recruits feel emboldened to "get theirs'." So I'm not sure where that leaves us, as fans. I think a majority of us feel that coaches/athlectic directors are enormously overpaid and because of that - there's an impetus to recruit the biggest talents to sustain their tenures.
College hoops (and football) at the highest collegiate level is a big-money enterprise, and I think it goes beyond the coaches/AD's at these schools. I think it also involves NCAA executives.
I think there's enough corruption going on there that it has to implicate some of these NCAA executives as well.
So if you're going to drop the hammer, you might as well go all the way to the top, to the level where a lot of this stuff that has been permitted over the years also makes some of these high-level NCAA committee executives complicit.
There are more than just a couple of levels of complicity here imo.