Is the End of College Basketball as We know it Here?

      Late last week, Yahoo! sports Pete Thamel and Pat Forde, published another follow up story about the alleged Corruption case against top Collegiate Basketball Programs and how it will change the landscape of College basketball forever. In this story, they maintain from the FBI's investigation into corruption in college basketball on Friday, it showed that players from more than 20 of the nation's top programs were implicated in possibly breaking NCAA rules. It's a complicated case with a lot of layers, that a possible 50 programs are involved and Hall of Fame Coaches, Top programs and lottery pick players will all go down when all this plays out in court. Also, the story said these schools potentially received impermissible benefits and preferential treatment for players and families; Alabama, Duke, Kentucky, LSU, Maryland, Michigan State, NC State, North Carolina, Seton Hall, Texas, USC, and Washington.   And Schools with active players implicated are; Alabama (Collin Sexton), Duke (Wendell Carter), Kentucky (Kevin Knox), Michigan State (Miles Bridges), South Carolina (Brian Bowen), Texas (Eric Davis Jr.), USC (Bennie Boatwright). Schools with former players implicated were; Clemson, Creighton, Iowa State, Kansas, Louisville, LSU, Maryland, NC State, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Seton Hall, Utah, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Washington, Wichita State, and Xavier. Michigan State came out early on Sunday, to say the NCAA has cleared Miles Bridges to play in Sunday's game at Wisconsin. Only time will tell what has transpired and if anything has taught us is that this could take years to play out in court and if we will ever see all the documents and information the FBI truly has as it relates to the alleged paying of top college players in exchange for them to go to certain schools.
     The biggest bombshell which I am sure is just the tip of the iceberg was that FBI wiretaps intercepted telephone conversations between Arizona head coach Sean Miller and Christian Dawkins (middleman for NBA agent, Andy Miller), a key figure in the FBI's investigation into college basketball corruption, in which Miller discussed paying $100,000 to ensure star freshman Deandre Ayton signed with the Wildcats. While Miller, Ayton and Arizona deny this allegation, Miller did not coach on Saturday night and his return to the team is in limbo while the school conducts their own investigation.  Will these bombshells and revelations continue to trickle out week after week as we get closer to March Madness or will the FBI release all their findings at once? Either way the NCAA and President Mark Emmett needs to stop blaming a systemic failure as the issue.
     College Basketball didn't get this way overnight, in fact its been this way for a long time and the NCAA kept their heads in the sand as they put Billions into their coffers year in and out. They refuse to accept any accountability and the "pay to play scheme" would of continued on as normal business if the FBI hadn't gotten involved. The question to be asked now is, to what extent does College Football have the same, "pay to play scheme"? College athletics have become the money making machine for both the Colleges and the NCAA and this has led to corruption and the integrity of college basketball called into question.
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