FBI Witness in Hoops Scandal Says He Paid M Football Players
We recruit four- and five-star players who hold offers from Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, etc... who in their right mind actually believed these kids were turning down thousands of dollars in cash to come to Michigan for the education? Same goes for any school that landed a single elite recruit.
We pay guys. They pay guys. The "oh well at least we don't pay guys" argument is laughable - we just aren't playing the game as effectively as the powerhouses and we're salty about it. I wish we paid players as effectively as Alabama and Clemson.
I don't care anymore. Unleash the bagmen.
Question of degrees. Hundred dollar handshake, vs. Alabama entire state-sanctioned system of cheating.
I'd believe it about Penn St, Michigan, ND, and Alabama. However... Northwestern? Seems very implausible.
Northwestern! Didn't expect that.
How OSU isn't on this list is absurd to me. If NW players are getting paid and UM during that lousy period, then my mind is boggled.
You have to understand, these are specific agents on trial. They don't deal with every school. The guy giving his testimony right now unfortunately dealt with Michigan guys. It doesn't mean OSU guys are being paid by some other agent
That doesn’t mean that OSU players are squeaky clean...just that they’re not getting payed by this guy!
That's a bit of a crazy list - ND, Northwestern, PSU, and UM (publicly "clean" programs) along with schools like UNC and Alabama who have more reputations for it.
Hopefully Michigan doesn't have to vacate it's only win over Osu in 15+ years ??
Asked this before, but...
Can't the federal government just dissolve the NCAA?
I mean, sure the IRS wants its slice from all this unreported income, but from a jurisdictional point of view, can't the feds make the NCAA itself go away?
we can't just send them to the gulags, this is america. unless we had some sort of sports czar...
Hmm.... I've got someone in mind.
April 24th, 2019 at 10:33 AM ^
Yes, the IRS could revoke the NCAA's 501 c 3 status. That would mean the NCAA would have to pay income taxes and that would be the end of it probably. Remember that the ultimate beneficiaries of all the $$$ that flow through the NCAA (besides paying employees outrageous salaries) are the member schools. If the NCAA had to pay taxes it would mean fewer $$$ to the member schools. The schools would have to react to that in some way by reducing expenses or increasing revenue.
Not surprising at all. No program is 100% immune from this and never will be. It was always about which programs actively encouraged it versus those that tried in good faith to stop it.
No, its about programs that actively encourage it vs programs that put their head in the sand and allow it to happen.
April 24th, 2019 at 12:57 PM ^
I think history has clearly shown that "willful ignorance" is not a strong defense to accountability.
Every non-athlete student on scholarship can make money whilst practicing their craft (internships) and be given benefits (wined and dined) but if you are play CFB or CBB then you're expected to practice your craft without pay....smh.
What BS...
April 23rd, 2019 at 11:34 PM ^
But every non-athlete actually belongs on campus.
And what is your point?
April 24th, 2019 at 12:58 PM ^
These students "craft" is not football, but whatever their major is in school. Technically, the sports are simply an extracurricular activity.
DerrickGreen.
Hoke probably dropped a fat bag for Derrick Green
Fat bag of donut holes.
What Marty blazer did is not the same thing as a booster giving money to a recruit. So let’s not conflate the two things.
this story is only interesting in that it makes the ncaa look ineffective
This looks great for those schools, if you ask me. That's bumblefuck money, total chump change. If guys are doing well enough to attract financial investments as pro prospects and they're still in a position to accept mere hundreds or thousands of dollars in exchange for a potentially significant limitation in their future freedom to choose a financial advisor, they are not getting a lot of other illicit money. You can't stop these kinds of payments no matter what you do. That the players will take them suggests you've stopped a lot of other kinds of payments.
I, for one, loathe the NCAA's endemic corruption; but am glad no serious crimes (like trading personally-owned equipment for tattoos) have been alleged.
Seems like this is a different type of bagman. Instead of a booster paying someone to go to a particular school, this is a guy who will pay anyone/everyone so as to get a return on investment later as a financial advisor. Not so much recruiting advantage in that for any one school.
This is what Ed Martin did.
Ed Martin was not a Michigan booster, Ed Martin was an Ed Martin booster.
He was paying off MSU players as well.
But, Michigan let him get too close to the program and paid the price, even if he was not steering players exclusively to Michigan.
April 24th, 2019 at 10:37 AM ^
Exactly. Everyone thought Webber was going to State until he changed his mind at the last minute. Martin was paying him in high school and would have kept paying him at State. Martin did end up being a booster by NCAA definition because he had season tickets to UM basketball.
News and Freep reporting that payments began in 2000 i.e. Lloyd period.
Did Zagoria cite a source?
The background article doesn't mention Michigan.
more to the point I feel sorry for anyone who engaged this man's services as a financial advisor. He invested his clients' money in movies and music ventures? Did they get their investments returned? And he escapes prosecution for cooperating with the investigation.
Brady Hoke was aware but not fully aware.
How shocking that Michigan may be involved in the unscrupulous side of big time collegiate athletics? I mean we are so sanctimonious it just cant be possible.
Yawn
My main question is whether our program knew about players taking money from outsiders. If they did, that’s bad. If they didn’t, it’s hard to fault the school - it’s on the players.
Tbh I just assume most top recruits are getting benefits somehow. Also, they should be getting benefits...as in, a stipend for what’s essentially a full time job.
The character of the recruits and players shouldn't reflect at all on the university, unless we are talking about other universities other than UM, in which case the opposite is true. amirite?
It is ridiculously early in this development. It's interesting to speculate but let's find out more about the facts before we spend much more time/effort on this.
Fortunately Alabama and Notre Dame are on the list, so there will be no investigation, and certainly no punishment, by the NCAA. Any more than there will be for Duke, UNC or Kansas in basketball.
April 23rd, 2019 at 10:34 PM ^
Yeah, but UAB and Indiana State will get the death penalty.
April 23rd, 2019 at 10:22 PM ^
I'm still under the impression that this guy who used to go by Maizen is Michigan's lead bagman. Like isn't he cashing each week's unemployment check, jumping into his piece of shit car, heading to Ann Arbor on the weekend to give out the $$$ handshakes to visiting recruits. If this isn't happening then I am very, very disappointed in that young man. I thought he was the one responsible for all the big 4 and 5 stars who have signed the past few years.
April 23rd, 2019 at 10:46 PM ^
I can almost guarantee that guys sits on his computer in his mom’s basement.
Maybe he steals smokes from his mom’s purse and sells them for some extra pocket change. But that ain’t getting any 5 stars to come to Michigan.
April 23rd, 2019 at 10:44 PM ^
April 23rd, 2019 at 10:57 PM ^
But by all means, if we just pay them (more) above the table, all of these under the table payments will go away. For sure. Without a doubt. Pay them more and the cheaters will stop cheating.
Not.
April 23rd, 2019 at 11:01 PM ^
How about we let them get paid whatever folks are willing to pay them?
You know, that crazy concept called capitalism.
April 23rd, 2019 at 11:36 PM ^
How would a team like NW compete financially with Alabama or Michigan? Most teams would disappear.
You're wondering how a team like Northwestern, which has the 5th biggest single school endowment in division 1 football would compete financially?
April 23rd, 2019 at 11:02 PM ^
Uhm it would. The incentive to do illegal activity would be minimized if athletes were compensated. Bad actors will still exist, but name me any other system that is 100% effective. I’ll wait.
April 23rd, 2019 at 11:00 PM ^
The trouble with this allegation is that every school will stone wall the media, block FOIA requests, and turn a blind eye. Michigan , on the other hand, will welcome every hack to take peruse through our files and wind up with Stretchgate 2.0.
Exactly. We will show them the Michigan way. Go Blue
So . . . nobody drives 55 mph?
Maybe the rule just does not make sense.
Except that there is a wealth of data showing that driving 55 saves lives - the risk/death rate goes up dramatically with each additional 5 mph. The law makes sense even though it is inconvenient for some). As a personal example, I used to drive on the freeways at 85mph typically - especially for long trips I would take a few times a month. When the recession hit and gas hit $4+ per gallon, I cut back and kept to the speed limit or even - God forbid - under the limit. The cost saving was significant and driving became much less stressful. Takes a little more time, but I don't regret the change.