On February 23, 2018, NCAA president, Mark Emmert, released a statement in response to allegations made in a Yahoo Sports report. As we have previously covered, Yahoo Sports reported that financial records, documents, and wiretaps tied to prominent former NBA agent, Andy Miller, and his former associate, Christian Dawkins, have provided the federal prosecution with a detailed window into the ongoing NCAA corruption/bribery case. According to the documents, payments as high as $73,000 were paid to current NCAA basketball players like Duke University’s, Wendell Carter, Michigan State’s, Miles Bridges, University of Kentucky’s, Kevin Knox, and University of Alabama’s, Collin Sexton. Besides Duke University, the University of Kentucky, Michigan State, and the University of Alabama, the report named the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Southern California – Los Angeles as other schools that may have been involved in similar transactions.
Emmert’s statement read, “These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America.” he continued, “[s]imply put, people who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports. They are an affront to all those who play by the rules.” As we have continued to report, the ongoing NCAA corruption/bribery case involves Adidas executive Jim Gatto, Adidas contractor Merl Code, and sports business manager Christian Dawkins. Each stand accused of facilitating six-figure payments to basketball players and their families in exchange for promises that the players would enroll at Adidas sponsored NCAA Division I schools and later would hire Dawkins.
Following the indictments, the NCAA formed the independent “Commission on College Basketball” to provide recommendations on how to clean-up NCAA basketball. According to Emmert’s statement, “With these latest allegations, it’s clear this work is more important now than ever. [The NCAA] is completely committed to making transformational changes to the game and ensuring all involved in college basketball do so with integrity.”