Jaybate This Is Your Day



  • I wonder just what the penalties could be. If someone goes to prison, this could legitimately change the recruiting landscape for both football and basketball.



  • I expect Cleveland State to get the death penalty soon!



  • Somehow, Somewhere, Someone will read that article and make a Dollar Bill reference



  • Justice department announcing charges on several live streams right now.



  • There will be more that comes out in the future. FBI is in DEEP in this. Have several FBI agents posing as financial advisers. Plea deals will be made for more names. This is far, far from over. College basketball recruiting just changed. Holy crap.



  • If you don’t know exactly what happened, here is a summary of the Justice Department’s press conference.

    • Scheme #1: Coaches taking bribes from financial advisors, agents and managers to push players that they are recruiting towards them.

    • Scheme #2: Sports brands paying players to attend schools sponsored by their brand. Some players over $100k. They passed the money through shell companies and committed fraud by putting those charges on the books as something else.



  • @jaybate-1-0 has been talking about this for over three years. You get to thinking it’s just there, part of the background, never gonna change. Wow.



  • I think KU is clean in all of this or our recruiting classes would be much more like some of our peers (not naming names)! 3 stand out BIG TIME far and away from the others. KU has had to patch things together with transfers, lower rated players, and had to utilize a play book to win games and our peers have had the luxury of having players funneled into their programs. Just sayn



  • The Adidas reps getting caught was just embarrassing. The quotes they have from them on Wire Taps are just insane. If you’re going to be committing felonies at least be smart enough to do it on a burner phone.



  • @Statmachine I would at least think that we have multiple levels of separation.



  • I would be shocked if this has any widespread impact unless there is more coming down the pipeline.

    Singling out just 4 coaches among the 100’s and advisors, agents etc among the thousands is not stopping business as usual tomm. Maybe it has a short-term effect but the AAU season is over, and doesn’t start back up for a bit. Time will pass and unless Federal oversight keeps its foot down peeps will go back to doing what they always do



  • @BShark

    Nothing to see here!

    Howling!



  • Damn this is crazy, shocked to see this come out and not include Cal. We all know these guys are getting paid.



  • @BeddieKU23 In the press conference they made it sound like they will continue monitoring college basketball and that they are in pretty deep at this point. They got one guy to turn and that caused 10 people to get arrested. The Justice Department and FBI now have 2 options:

    1. They can use this as a warning to other programs and brand reps. They don’t offer plea deals and crush these 10 individuals with long prison sentences and harsh fines hoping that the scare tactic works. I think this would be effective to an extent.

    2. They can take those 10 people and offer them pleas and get another 100 people. Then take the 100 people and get 1000. And actually clean up college basketball.

    I think #2 seems more likely. They have already done the hard part by getting in the system and finding out what was going on. Now, you take these 10 people, you slam a 5-year prison sentence in front of the 4 coaches and offer up a deal if they will give you names. You slam a 20-year prison sentence and millions in fines in front of the brand reps and offer up a deal if they will give you every name you ever wanted. This lets these coaches continue their lives and puts a stop to the problem without legitimately ruining anyone’s life. This is not something people need to do jail time for. But it is something that needs to be fixed.

    I do suppose there is a 3rd option that is what usually happens:

    1. No major penalties or jail time are enforced. Precedence is set. Business continues as usual.


  • @approxinfinity

    The minute I saw KU get that big adidas contract, Self talk retirement, and heard KU had a $50 M stadium donor, coupled with rumors of KU leaving for B10, I suspected there would be blow back!!!

    But it’s now way bigger than sports. Our Deep State appears to be at war with a major element in Germany and its allies in USA. Hoops and shoe wars are caught up in much higher stakes.

    Artillery always fires short and long before targeting in between. Buckle helmets and fill sand bags. I sense incoming!



  • @jaybate-1-0 I thought you’d appreciate the thread title.

    And yes, how great that the FBI is tackling THE REAL ISSUES in the world today.



  • No way Pitino and Pearl survive this right? LOL



  • @BeddieKU23 Rick Pitino gets fired over this, period.

    Jim Gatto, director of global sports marketing at Adidas, was among those arrested. He’s accused of helping funnel approximately $100,000 to the family of an “All-American high school basketball player” to secure the prospect’s commitment to a school Adidas sponsors. According to documents, the prospect committed in June. The only “All-American high school basketball player” who committed to a school Adidas sponsors in June is Brian Bowen. He’s now enrolled at Louisville.

    Louisville coach Rick Pitino was asked about Bowen’s commitment in June. “We got lucky on this one,” Pitino said. "I had an AAU director call me and say, ‘Would you be interested in a basketball player?’ I said … ‘Yeah, I’d be really interested.’ But [Bowen and his people] had to come in unofficially, pay for their hotels, pay for their meals. So we spent zero dollars recruiting a five-star athlete who I loved when I saw him play. In my 40-some-odd years of coaching, this is the luckiest I’ve been."



  • @jaybate-1.0 You called it. The big shoe money, the buying off players, the embargo … the whole enchilada. Your scoffers probably won’t be heard from, I’m guessing.



  • KUSTEVE said:

    @jaybate-1.0 You called it. The big shoe money, the buying off players, the embargo … the whole enchilada. Your scoffers probably won’t be heard from, I’m guessing.

    I mean, it was the worst kept secret in the world. Not sure I believe the embargo though. Do I believe Self burned some bridges? Seems likely, but embargo? Meh.



  • @BShark Mo Kan Elite.





  • KUSTEVE said:

    @BShark Mo Kan Elite.

    Also: PSA Cardinals.





  • @KUSTEVE

    Cracking down on adidas appears like cracking down on hub cap thieves in a 'hood, while heroin, crack and meth are reputedly being sold openly on Wall Street. 😀

    Is this a serious attack on adidas market share for challenging TPTB?

    adidas appears practically marginalized already in its apparent ability to supply top talent in competitive quantities!

    What must TPTB be doing?

    Holy cow! Whatta world!



  • @KUSTEVE DEAD! 😂





  • jaybate 1.0 said:

    @KUSTEVE

    Cracking down on adidas appears like cracking down on hub cap thieves in a 'hood, while heroin, crack and meth are reputedly being sold openly on Wall Street. 😀

    Is this a serious attack on adidas market share for challenging TPTB?

    adidas appears practically marginalized already in its apparent ability to supply top talent in competitive quantities!

    What must TPTB be doing?

    Holy cow! Whatta world!

    They are getting anyone they can. Multiple Nike and UA guys too. One of the Adidas execs just recently left Nike for Adidas, so the transgressions probably took place while at Nike.



  • What’s weird to me is none of the four coaches charged so far are even at Adidas schools. ??

    OSU, USC, Arizona are Nike schools. Auburn is Under Armour.



  • DanR said:

    What’s weird to me is none of the four coaches charged so far are even at Adidas schools. ??

    OSU, USC, Arizona are Nike schools. Auburn is Under Armour.

    Yep. This is what I was saying earlier. They are nabbing ANYONE they can catch.



  • Arizona: Nike school Auburn: Under Armour school Oklahoma State: Nike school USC: Nike school Charged with federal crime: adidas exec



  • @BShark

    Hope you’re right, but it appears we are in for a very, very long and hard fought economic war for the soul/sole of the game. And I believe we are still quite early in the asymmetric strategic-tactical exploitation of the legal-political constraint.



  • @Kcmatt7

    Option 3 sounds likely to happen but the FBI definitely just opened a bunch of eyes (millions) to this so hopefully if they actually plan to do something here they will keep the pedal down and push through.



  • jaybate 1.0 said:

    @BShark

    Hope you’re right, but it appears we are in for a very, very long and hard fought economic war for the soul/sole of the game. And I believe we are still quite early in the asymmetric strategic-tactical exploitation of the legal-political constraint.

    If you are saying more will come of this I agree. Still very early in the process.





  • @BShark

    I’m saying you have to make it look like you are going after “everyone”, when you are going after “someone.”

    I’m saying leopards don’t change spots until AFTER they have been hopelessly crushed.

    Self talking retirement very recently (ie, appearing to make himself a lameduck) and appearing to tie it to “the way recruiting is”, which was already anomalous, grows increasingly conspicuous.



  • @BeddieKU23

    I could be wrong, but I just don’t see the FBI leaving it all on the floor for Cal in Lexington, while Mitch McConnell has enough clout to appear to stop repeal of Obamacare for the Deep State. 😀



  • It’s easy to read that as Self jumping out in front of it.



  • One other interesting thing about this is that only Adidas is mentioned but 3 of the 4 schools are Nike andd the other is under armor.



  • @kjayhawks

    It is thought-provoking.



  • To et al,

    I have only been posing a hypothesis for the last few years, one of many possible explanations of puzzling phenomena in college basketball recruiting. And at the end of the day today, this is just a piece of evidence at the arrest and allegation stage. Nothing definitive .



  • Are we pristine?

    Is this the death of college basketball?



  • HighEliteMajor said:

    Are we pristine?

    Is this the death of college basketball?

    No.

    I doubt it but maybe.



  • FBI raided ASM and seized Andy Miller’s computer. Calipari might be developing some back issues soon. Heard K gave him tips on that.



  • Self has been talking about retiring around 60 for a long time, his recent comments are in line with what he’s said for the past decade or so about he long he wants to coach.



  • ESPN’s version of the story says Adidas funneled 3 players, but we only know of Brian Bowen to Louisville.

    What’s the time period for Adidas to funnel players to schools? Does is impact any 2016 players or is it all 2017 and 2018 players?





  • Well went to the Kentucky boards, of Course Kentucky people saying Coach Self is probably sweating like the Niagra Falls under his toupee - -typical on top of the fact they think Louisville may get the death penalty or at least some but you know how they are.

    Louisville Board saying big news announcement tomorrow morning and that Rick P is going to be fired. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY



  • @HighEliteMajor

    One possibility is this is only expediently about basketball. Two axes of private oligarchy appear to be struggling over who gets to wage the wars and get the contracts and resources necessary to extend the private central bank hegemony into Syria, Iran, NorKor, and Russia. This struggle exposes fissures in the new world order. Players like Germany in the past allowed to have action in many of the producer oligopolies bridle at some of the risks and costs they are being asked to bear. When they don’t play ball, they have to be sanctioned, right? Sanctions are the Tao of Empire that precede subjugation, right? Sanctions take many forms. Lesser players down the food chain recognize they can ply political and economic pressures to serve short sighted seemingly unrelated agendas and get help In doing things, under the rubric of the unofficial sanctioning process. Seemingly unconnected anomalous events, perhaps like this one, appear sometimes as fallout. Time will tell how serious TPTB are about global petroshoe and petroapparel market domination, and whether it is significant to, insignificant to pursuit of grand strategy. Too soon to say much right now IMHO. But I’ll ask you this. Do you think the times favor a German shoe company IN American sports against two American shoecos with Nike’s and Under Armour’s varying origins of political and financial backing, when the USA is apparently frustrated about GERMANY feasting on Russian gas and refusing nukes, er, ABMs, to ring and villify Russia for take down? I half wonder if we won’t soon be seeing a Polish tennis shoe company created!!!



  • Et al,

    In strategy, you encircle before attacking the real target.


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