Rickochet I believe your skepticism was already addressed; that an organization as large as the FBI can have more than one or two items on the "to do" list. LOL

    First of what may be many high profile casualties in this affair - Louisville's A.D. and BB coach Pitino are fired. I hope the FBI also goes after the top people at the shoe/apparel companies and not just the lower level "bagmen"...

    So, who's got the axe? All I saw on the news this morning was Pitino was suspended?

      LBlack14
      An assistant coach at Arizona is getting fired. From what I'm hearing this is getting to the blue bloods in the sport. Grab your popcorn.

        The tentacles of the FBI's investigation haven't even begun to reach out yet. Adidas was first, now (as of today) they're announcing that Nike's AAU league is also part of the investigation.

        I suspect there will be numerous other programs/coaches involved in this. To what extent - who knows.

        I'm guessing this will continue to play out over the coming months, as those looking at serious federal indictments with the likely result of significant prison time start bargaining for plea deals in lieu of selling out other programs and coaches. So I don't think this investigation is remotely over, and I think there will be other programs involved, especially when the evidence starts to mount and there's no other choice but to cooperate.

        And dare I say that this might go beyond college hoops... this could easily meander into college football too.

        This is a huge problem for the NCAA, too. You're not gonna convince me that some at the highest echelon of collegiate sports weren't aware of what was happening.

        This is gonna get pretty messy, me thinks.

        LBlack14

        I hope he is, just so I can perhaps not hear you bitching about him anytime a topic evolves around college basketball. In fact - give me a thousand dollars cash, in an envelope, and I'll mail it to one of his incoming recruits and leave a note saying, "hey - thanks for choosing us! ~ Coach Cal"

          The FBI needs to go after the Deans and administrators, it's all about alumni donations....

            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.