College basketball's biggest names implicated in new corruption report
NCAA President Mark Emmert is vowing to clean up the dirty money that plagues college basketball, with the latest bombshell report sending a shockwave through dozens of Division I programs Friday morning.
The report, from Yahoo Sports' Pat Forde and Pete Thamil, lifts the lid on federal documents from an investigation into former NBA agent Andy Miller, his former associate Christian Dawkins and his agency, ASM Sports, for providing allegedly illegal benefits to high school recruits and college prospects.
More than 20 schools – including powerhouses Duke, North Carolina, Villanova and Michigan State – and 25 players are listed, and "the sheer number of potential cases and varying degrees of potential violations are vast," Yahoo says.
Past players are also named, including Creighton star Justin Patton, who's now a rookie with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
GoMN has reached out to the University of Creighton's compliance department but is yet to hear back.
Patton's involvement doesn't appear to be anything more than a meal that was paid for, according to the Omaha World-Herald.
No other Minnesota connections are made in the report, but colleges that some of Minnesota's top high school players have played for in recent years are.
The documents include many findings of allegedly illegal benefits and preferential treatment provided to players and families, ranging from the payment of basic meals to gifts amounting in the tens of thousands of dollars.
NCAA amateurism rules clearly state that recruits and rostered players cannot receive payment of any kind.
Emmert released a statement shortly after the report broke Friday morning.
“These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America. Simply 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.
"Following the Southern District of New York's indictments last year, the NCAA Board of Governors and I formed the independent Commission on College Basketball, chaired by Condoleezza Rice, to provide recommendations on how to clean up the sport. With these latest allegations, it's clear this work is more important now than ever.
"The Board and I are completely committed to making transformational changes to the game and ensuring all involved in college basketball do so with integrity. We also will continue to cooperate with the efforts of federal prosecutors to identify and punish the unscrupulous parties seeking to exploit the system through criminal acts."
On the heels of the last bombshell report
Friday's report comes not long after last year's report that linked college basketball universities and coaches to a bribery scheme in which coaches, including former Wolves player and now former Auburn assistant coach, Chuck Person, directed NBA caliber players to specific agents.
Just last week the NCAA vacated the University of Louisville's 2013 national championship because they were named to the bribery report. That report also played a role in the eventual firing of longtime coach, Rick Pitino.
