The FBI is investigating and charging college basketball coaches for bribing players

A bombshell in college basketball has caught up to as many as 10 college basketball assistant coaches and others involved in the sport in a corruption case related to bribery.

Typically a scandal in college basketball involves one thing: paying players above full scholarship and full cost of attendance. That’s what happened here, but with a twist. It doesn’t appear that this is a garden-variety NCAA scandal, where coaches might act with boosters to pay players. This is federal:

A Wall Street Journal story detailed the different parties involved:

Investigators have been looking at whether coaches at these schools have been paid by outside entities—such as financial advisers, agents, and apparel companies—in exchange for pressuring players to associate with those entities, people familiar with the investigation said. Executives at at least one apparel company are expected to be among those arrested, a person familiar with the matter said.

The investigation is being led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office.

Broadly, the investigation has shed light on the highly competitive recruiting pipeline that brings elite high-school basketball players through Division I college programs and into the professional leagues, and the role played by assistant coaches in that process, the people said.

You can file this under “things many of us believe happen in college basketball, but nobody could really prove with concrete evidence.” With the AAU circuit exploding in recent years, recruiting college basketball players is increasingly contentious and high stakes.

NBC News’ Tom Winter, who broke the news early Tuesday morning:

In a complaint released on the Department of Justice’s website, enrollment numbers attached to schools only marked as “University-6” and “University-7” point to Louisville and Miami. That means at least Adidas is an apparel company caught up in this. Jim Gatto, one of the listed defendants in the complaint, is an executive with Adidas.

On Tuesday evening, Louisville head coach Rick Pitino released the following statement through his attorney:

The Department of Justice held a press conference at noon ET, with Joon H. Kim, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York talking for much of the proceedings. Kim outlined two mechanisms of the alleged corruption in college basketball being investigated:

This is how players would get pressured into signing deals with advisers and managers.

Here is how sportswear companies would try to ensure promising players would end up at sponsored universities.

Kim said “In a way the schools are the victim,” noting that the investigation is still ongoing.

Chuck Person, Auburn associate head coach was recorded speaking to players and an agent who was wearing an FBI wire. The former NBA player and assistant coach lied to one family, telling them an adviser he was introducing them to had done work for him and Charles Barkley, adamantly saying he never took money from him — despite receiving an envelope containing $15,000 shortly before the meeting.

Christian Dawkins, a former sports agent told coaches involved that:

“If we take care of everybody, we control everything. You can make millions off one kid.”

Similarly Dawkins told sportswear manufacturers on tape that they could be “running college basketball” if they were willing to fund bribes to players and coaches. When asked how things will be accounted for he said on tape:

“Not be completely accounted for on paper, because some of it is — whatever you want to call it — illegal.”

The FBI are still open to taking calls from people who may be involved in these schemes at other schools, with Kim adding that the FBI “has the playbook” on these types of rackets, imploring those involved to step forward and call them now, as it would be better than “waiting for us to call you.”

This is only the beginning of what could be a much bigger and broader investigation than initially anticipated.