F0r years many have believed that the NCAA had a problem with athletes being paid by schools or even agents, and that sways players to go to specific schools.
According to a Yahoo! Sports report from Friday morning, it might even be bigger than many realize. They went over hundreds of federal documents over a multiple year period, and the results seem to be stunning.
According to Yahoo Sports:
“The documents tie some of the biggest names and programs in the sport to activity that appears to violate the NCAA’s amateurism rules. This could end up casting a pall over the NCAA tournament because of eligibility issues. There’s potential impermissible benefits and preferential treatment for players and families of players at Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Michigan State, USC, Alabama and a host of other schools. The documents link some of the sport’s biggest current stars – Michigan State’s Miles Bridges, Alabama’s Collin Sexton and Duke’s Wendell Carter – to specific potential extra benefits for either the athletes or their family members. The amounts tied to players in the case range from basic meals to tens of thousands of dollars.”
The biggest payment that they found was to current Dallas Mavericks point guard and former NC State star, Dennis Smith Jr. According to the documents, he was given $43,500.
To remain eligible for college athletics individuals cannot accept outside gifts or money, and if caught, they are deemed ineligible.
For the players that are still in college like Miles Bridges, it will be interesting to see what the Michigan State Spartans do with him. Will they continue to play him and take a chance that he won’t be deemed ineligible later? Or will they decide to sit him down, because chances are the school probably already knows if these payments actually happened or not.
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