The Real Scandal Is What Isn’t Legal
By 
NCAA rules that allow sub-replacement-level coaches to be payed more than $2 million a year while denying players from receiving direct compensation in anything but scrip and any compensation from deals made with third parties at all are grossly immoral. They are also widely flouted, leading to periodic scandals. Alas, far to many peonage ball reporters uncritically accept the frames of the guardians of the Noble Ideal of Amateurism:
Today’s “blockbuster” story involves documents, spreadsheets and ledgers kept by agents which allegedly track loans and payments made to a couple dozen top hoops recruits. The single biggest payout: a total of $73,500 in loans to one player, with evidence that the loan was intended to be paid back. The biggest non-loan benefit? Another player, now in the NBA, received $9,500 over the course of his college career.
If this is the best the feds have, maybe there is a lot less money going to the players than we all thought.
The investigation is ostensibly about bribery and fraud, and I’m still at a total loss to understand what exactly here rises to the level of a federal case. From what is known, it appears to be the same old bullshit that’s been a fundamental part of college sports since college sports was invented: agents, coaches, sneaker companies, paying players under the table to come play for them because the rules don’t allow them to pay them atop the table.
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There are criminals here, and it’s not the kids getting a few thousand dollars, and it’s not the recruiters working under terrific market pressures and being kept in check by historically lax enforcement. This is the game. Let’s not pretend the game is a scandal. And let’s sure as hell not pretend this particular story is going to lead to anything more than a few uncareful scapegoats getting busted, a few banners coming down, life going on as normal, and the system that allows and encourages this stuff being propped up even further, this time with federal backing.
If the feds want to do something about college sports’ crooks, I know a cartel worth busting.
NCAA players should have exactly the same ability to negotiate the best direct and third-party compensation the market will bear as Mark Emmert. The end.