FBI Corruption Probe

[ShockerFever]

Funny how this news breaks on a Friday night...

[Cdizzle]

Not sure if that applies here. CBB is in full-view all day Saturday, and this stuff just made the lead.

[ShockerFever]

They'll be talking about it but the games will try to detract from it.

Regardless, I still think it's funny.

[ShockerPrez]

This is just the **** the FBI deemed ok to release...

[Shox The Revenant]

Man, is U of A the Baylor of the west? Now a federal lawsuit has been amended regarding Arizona football players gang raping students and staffers. I won't go ballz out and start laughing at them, at least not until I hear that no WSU employee is on the wire taps.

[shoxlax]

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong since it's been almost 40 years but I don't remember the KC Times allegations against the Carr family actually showing up in the NCAA list of infractions that resulted in probation.

As far as Fred goes, while I don't like being part of the story, I'm reserving my final judgement until the full story comes out and all parties have had their say. That may be awhile.

You are right about the NCAA investigation. It was all hearsay and non substantiated. I am very familiar with the report and how the conclusions were arrived at. That’s for a discussion over a beer not this board.

[DanielBryan]

[ShockerFever]

You have a smartphone?

[ShockerPhi]

F*** Arizona. F*** Baylor. F*** Michigan State. F*** Louisville.

[Shoxcity]

I love this investigation as long as no one from WSU gets in trouble. Somebody needed to take out the trash.

[Sam Axe]

Next shoe to drop: Bill Self gets nailed for offering six figures to a 5* toupee maker

[another shocker]

This is just the **** the FBI deemed ok to release...

yeah, well, all of the one-and-done schools better get roasted. "come here for one year and we wil direct you to the nba." damn.. could it be any more obvious?

[WSUwatcher]

I don't think we know everything, or close to it. This is just one agency over a relatively small number of years. But from what we do know, Fred's $1000-3000 his senior year is significantly different from the tens of the thousands of dollars given to recruits before the picked a college. In fact, it is close to the least significant value we've seen for the smallest amount of eligibility. That said, we probably should expect that time to be vacated.

And I would guess this is just the tip of the iceberg. It has been common knowledge that AAU in general is dirty at the top levels, and this barely delved into that. I wouldn't be surprised that we learn quite a bit more, about ourselves and others.

Bottom line, I'm disappointed but not extremely so. It barely matters in the end; it did not impact any decision Fred made while in college. He did not choose to come here for money, he did not choose to stay or leave for money. Many other universities are dealing with far worse. I'll wait till we hear further info and see punishments before my opinion solidifies.

Well said, Fan. I'm disappointed in FVV, whom I've always held in the highest regard and cited as a good example to my own son (as I plan to continue doing, by the way, because this lapse in judgment does nothing to diminish the many fine qualities for which I cite him as an illustration). Nevertheless, if he took the money -- and so far we have an accusation and evidence, but no response; FVV is entitled to give his side of the story, too -- he was wrong to do so; and if it ends up imposing some financial consequence on WSU, such as a loss of tournament revenue his senior year, I believe he should repay it in one tangible financial way or another. I'd be more disappointed if he didn't ultimately do that than I am about the allegation.

Still, one can't overemphasize the vast difference between an individual acting on his own to take money from an agent to help him land an NBA job and a player being bought to attend a particular school, the latter of which almost certainly can't happen without some sort of institutional knowledge or involvement (or, to borrow a legal concept, gross negligence functionally the same as knowledge). The moral equivalence crowd like SN's fake XMan will jump on Fred's alleged jaywalking and equate it to Josh Jackson's or (probably) Billy Preston's alleged bank robberies, but that's just stupid. And JH4P's highmindedness notwithstanding, there are levels of rules violations, just as the criminal law distinguishes misdemeanors from felonies, and if the NCAA or the sports pundits who spend their time trumpeting the name brand schools have even a shred of integrity and intellectual honesty (and yes, I realize what I'm saying there), they'll operate accordingly and aim their big guns at the big violators, the ones whose institutions are probably involved too as opposed to individual actors.

If the NCAA properly makes that distinction, it should -- should; will it? -- actually help WSU NOT to be one of the bluebloods who dive into the slop to recruit the most elite players, because regardless of how often or emphatically a coach tells his guys to watch out for agents, their contact with individual players can easily happen in isolation. And it's thus far more likely that a school like WSU would run into a situation like the alleged FVV incident. which is easy to envision happening without any program involvement, than it is for them to be recruiting a 5-star who commands a big money payment to pick the landing spot for his one year in college that he's only tolerating because he doesn't want to go overseas for a year right out of high school before coming back home to play in the NBA.

[KmanTA]

Just to add some information to this ... VanVleet's agent from ASM Sports, Brian Jungreis, also has the following clients: Markel Brown (Okie State), Juwan Evans (Okie State), Josh Huestis (Stanford), Brice Johnson (UNC), Jarell Martin (LSU) and Mareese Speights (Florida).

Brown and Evans both played for one of the coaches who was taken into custody by the FBI from Okie State. Johnson and Martin were both named in the Yahoo report along with VanVleet.

His other agent has a longer list of clients, but some of those players have also been implicated in the report. Chaz Williams (Massachusetts), Davon Reed (Miami) (but Reed is only mentioned in a hand-written note at the bottom of one of the documents) and D.J. Newbill (Penn State).

[jasonhc73]

Perspective

Please read this;

http://www.wichita.edu/thisis/stories/story.asp?si=2731

Look at how severe the penalties are when they(the team players) didn't know what they received was a violation. I think every game from December 15 (when he received the "loan") to the end of the season that Fred played will get vacated.

[atlwsu]

Does anyone have an opinion on any players around the NCAA will be held out of games based on yesterday's revelation?

[ShockdaWorld]

Some already have been.

[proshox]

I feel sorry for WSU fans who remain confident WSU is any better or worse than the competitive environment.

The whole system is based on an underground market that begins well before players arrive to college.

[pogo]

So are you saying you feel bad for every WSU fan because they have an opinion they are either better or worse than the competitive environment?