Wow: James Gatto, head of global sports marketing for adidas, & 4 collegeball coaches arrested for bribery/fraud

The Overexplainer wrote:

Mr. Obvious wrote:

adidas is the international company referred to.

Lamont Evans of Ok. State and Chuck Person (the refileman) of Auburn among those charged.

His nickname is "The Refileman"?

He files again and again, and again...

I got to laugh at one of the guys implicated here. Former NBA and college ref, owner of clothing company for athletes, also tried to fight Dominique Wilkins, and got himself whupped.

https://atlanta.sbnation.com/atlanta-hawks/2011/3/31/2082544/photo-rashan-michels-booking-photo-after-dominique-wilkins-fight

Football is not worse.

1) No one player in football makes that big of a difference. One basketball recruit can easily save a coaches career.

2) There is a limited endorsement deal for football in terms of shoes.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

I was a former NCAA Compliance Coordinator. My experience was whatever comes out in public is what will stick. The entire story is likely far worse.

Ding! Ding! Ding! UNC academic scandal all over again.

Too much money for many in the NCAA.

pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

I was a former NCAA Compliance Coordinator. My experience was whatever comes out in public is what will stick. The entire story is likely far worse.

Ding! Ding! Ding! UNC academic scandal all over again.

Too much money for many in the NCAA.

Unfortunately pretty sad. So much for the role of sport in education.

Igy

Yes. And just think about how many more basketball sneakers Nike and Adidas sell versus football cleats. Football makes more money for the schools, but not for the shoe companies.

This reminds me of the FIFA investigation. They talk about reform in soccer for years and it go's nowhere. Somehow the FBI gets involved in it by breaking down some obese American (Chuck Blazer) and the whole organization starts to unravel in Switz?

LetsRun.com wrote:

Just merged the two threads into one. Didn't realize someone else had started one that was bigger.

Just stop it. Now none of it makes any sense.

rojo wrote:

Football is not worse.

1) No one player in football makes that big of a difference. One basketball recruit can easily save a coaches career.

2) There is a limited endorsement deal for football in terms of shoes.

Your missing a few things.

Have you ever been to a packed collegiate football stadium?

There are 8 collegiate football stadiums with over 100k person seating.

Television broadcasting rights deals are football driven.

Collegiate programs are for the team visibility and all programs under one umbrella with merchandising sales help paying for the cost of buying into the program. Sales of collegiate football merchandising far outsell basketball items.

Under the table recruitment is far worse in football, the stakes are bigger.

Individual shoe deals in basketball are few and far between. The number of kids who make it to the NBA is small, the number of kids worthy of a shoe deal is even smaller.

The agents play a sleazy role between the lines of taking money from lots of areas to pad their pockets. Athletes are directed towards schools that are trying to build program visibility that already have a shoe deal that athletes have no say in. They wear whatever the schools equipment sponsorship is.

They become open market once they turn pro, best deal out there not what they wore in college.

Cam Newton was being shopped by his father for $200k. Some players do make that much difference in football. Of course, the NCAA made it all go away.https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cam-newton-scandal-rep-sought-cash-from-msu/

rojo wrote:

Football is not worse.

1) No one player in football makes that big of a difference. One basketball recruit can easily save a coaches career.

2) There is a limited endorsement deal for football in terms of shoes.

Call me jaded, but who really gets hurt here?

What's so freakin important that takes the FBI away from chasing terrorists, drug dealers, or slowing the insane rate of murders in Chicago or Detroit?

I said nearly the same thing 20 years ago in the Boston College cheating scandal when a couple of college kids got 20 years federal time for taking less than $10Gs total. Was that about the Integrity of the game? BS, that was to protect illegal bettors.

Good interview on NPR yesterday about this. Guy was saying it is much more prevalent in BB for a couple of different reasons.

1. A single player can make a bigger difference to a team than in FB. Yes, there are a few exceptions but the overall rule still stands.

2. A BB player prodigy can be identified much younger and at a higher success rate than FB players. Guy was saying BB players can be identified as young as 14.

3. Because of only a 1 year college requirement you get a quicker return on your money with a BB player.

I have no doubt that similar things go on in FB but probably not to as much as basketball. Hell, I bet the same thing has gone on with a few runners.

Adidas?

Is this prosecution being directed by Nike?

Blame it on the black man wrote:

Wow, unbelievable how they targeted these coaches and let others off free. The investigation cost US taxpayers close to $2 billion and they didn't even end up indicting the worst coaches. Unreal.

They're just starting