Enjoy the current state of college basketball while you can. The sweeping FBI probe that implicated 10 men of corruption and resulted in former Louisville coach Rick Pitino losing his job last fall was just the beginning, by the looks of it.
That spawned three separate criminal investigations, the results of which have yet to be released. And if and when the details of those investigations go public, the results will “fundamentally and indelibly alter the sport of college basketball,” Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel reported Thursday.
“Multiple sources who’ve been briefed on the case and are familiar with the material obtained by feds told Yahoo Sports that the impact on the sport will be substantial and relentless,” Thamel wrote. “Sitting under protective order right now are the fruits of 330 days of monitoring activity by the feds, which one assistant U.S. Attorney noted Thursday was ‘a voluminous amount of material.’ That includes wiretaps from 4,000 intercepted calls and thousands of documents and bank records obtained from raids and confiscated computers, including those from notorious NBA agent Andy Miller.”
While the release of the information — which reportedly could incriminate upwards of 50 college basketball programs — is expected, it’s currently unknown when, or how it will be released. But if it drops soon, the upcoming NCAA Tournament could be significantly affected.
“This goes a lot deeper in college basketball than four corrupt assistant coaches,” a source who has been briefed on the details of the case told Thamel. “When this all comes out, Hall of Fame coaches should be scared, lottery picks won’t be eligible to play and almost half of the 16 teams the NCAA showed on its initial NCAA tournament show this weekend should worry about their appearance being vacated.”
Wow.
Thamel also noted there’s a very real chance the eventual March Madness champion will vacate its title, and that the only variable delaying the inevitable is time. Whether this information leaks before, during or after a criminal trial, it appears it’s only a matter of time until the NCAA answers for perhaps its biggest scandal yet.
The entire report is worth a read by clicking below.
