Matt Harrelson
It's never good when the FBI gets involved, but for college basketball fans expecting fun FBI juice, they got plenty of it when Yahoo's report finally dropped extremely early Friday morning.
Yes, the FBI has found that numerous NCAA players and stars have accepted money from an agency called ASM Sports. As the report goes on, it lists further players who apparently either dined with the agent in question or had an as-yet-to-be-determined meeting with no details exchanged.
Some players received massive chunks of money. And no matter how you slice it and how tough it is to digest, that's not good for an argument in favor of the NCAA's proper oversight.
But some folks involved in a capacity that doesn't specify money include Duke's Wendell Carter Jr., and former North Carolina player Tony Bradley. Both were listed as taking a meeting with the agent in question, Christian Dawkins, and potentially accepted a free meal from him. Potentially not even doing that?
Regardless, apparently just being listed as having a relationship with the agent in question was enough to get Duke and UNC in the headlines over Dennis Smith Jr. and NC State, who accepted $73,000.
Yeah. Those are the same thing.
Looking at the report, former Seton Hall player Isaiah Whitehead received $37,657. Kentucky star Bam Adebayo took $36,500 and didn't even sign with the agency, which is quite a boss move.
That's plenty more than whatever Carter and Bradley are being accused of. There's an overall systematic problem here, but the reason that Duke and Carolina got the headlines is simply that: they're Duke and Carolina. Imagine reading the entire report and finding either of them as guilty as, say Michigan State and Villanova.
Tom Izzo and the Nova coaching staff are firmly cited for meeting with agency representatives. Miles Bridges is on the payroll.
And poor Sean Miller in Arizona will more than likely be forever shunned from the sport after reports of the Wildcats coach caught on a wiretap discussing securing a $100,000 payment for DeAndre Ayton came out.
Wendell Carter had a sandwich once.
If Duke and UNC get in trouble for this compared to what some of the other schools' players are involved in, that'd simply be absurd.
This whole thing is a mess right now, but it's really hard to be surprised by any outcome or lack of action down the road. Most people knew players received some kind of benefit while playing college basketball.
Now, it's all coming out, and quite frankly, it's putting a damper on the game as March Madness approaches.
It's laughable and insulting that this report tries to list dinners that players (or their families) had with agencies in the same category as players receiving thousands of dollars in loans. A player having a meal with an agent is not a violation. A player's parents having a meal with agents, is not a violation. Being listed on an expense report is not a violation.
There are certainly some eye-catching names and programs listed in the report, but as it relates to North Carolina and Duke, this is akin to yelling "Fire!" in a movie theater, when there isn't even smoke.
