NCAA March Madness Set to Begin During FBI Investigation

Mark Angelo, CEO, Yorkville Advisors

College hoops are about to enter its most exciting and popular stretch of the year, March Madness, and yet the NCAA is still operating under a thick cloud of suspicion stemming from a wide-ranging pay-for-play scandal and an ongoing investigation by both the United States Congress and the FBI. As nearly every sports media outlet, and millions of fans want to know how deep and how wide the corruption went, the NCAA doesn’t seem to want to comment on the issue at all.

However, it looks like they won’t be given a choice. Leading the charge is House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican. “As we look at the NCAA overall, there are obviously serious issues here… You’ve got the issue with abuse, and now you’ve got this issue.”

“Serious issues” is not the headline the NCAA was hoping to have leading into their biggest month of the year. While bending the rules and cutting corners is nothing new in college sports – it seems like every season one school or another is being put on probation for some violation – this sheer scope of what people are already calling the “NCAA basketball bribery scandal” will catch up with them.

The fact that the entire umbrella organization of American college sports is being used to describe the scandal is even news. At one point, not that long ago, there were just a handful of coaches and brands being named. Now, though, that list is growing, and it includes some of the most storied programs in college hoops.

Worse, at least for the NCAA, is that the scandal has already generated at least 10 indictments against assistant coaches at several prominent schools, along with corporate executives and sports agents. These indictments offer an indication at just how complex and far-reaching the web of corruptions may have been.

According to the developing narrative, coaches at several schools have been accused of taking cash from agents to “encourage” players to hire those agents. Meanwhile, shoe companies were paying players to choose certain colleges. These allegations are coming from the FBI, which is still investigating.

And the schools involved? So far, the list includes Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, Michigan State, Texas, USC, Alabama, Arizona, Utah, and Washington… Some on the list have coaches involved, some have former players or agents or others. At this point, just being named as part of the scandal becomes a major PR issue, because there’s no way the media stays away from this during March Madness coverage.

So, no matter how quiet the NCAA wants to be in response to this ongoing PR crisis, it’s not going away anytime soon.