GT_EE78
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The CBS articles certainly are salacious,condemning and point to widespread cheating but usage of "unnamed" and "anonymous" sources dings the credibility. All is possible but i don't see anything there that the FBI or NCAA could use in an investigation.First, this from before the scandal broke, talks about how cheating in recruiting has changed (sort of plays into exactly what scandal uncovered)
Almost 3X as many coaches said cheating is worse than it was 5 years ago than say it is better.
https://www.cbssports.com/college-b...sketball-recruiting-isnt-getting-any-cleaner/
This from last fall. about a 50/50 split on whether the scandal has reduced cheating.
https://www.cbssports.com/college-b...antly-reduced-cheating-in-the-past-10-months/
On one of the podcasts a few weeks ago Matt Norlander mentioned he had a number of coaches call him after Will Wade was reinstated at LSU really mad. Not because they don't like him, but because if someone was cheating as blatantly as he was and nothing happens, what reason is there for anyone not to cheat and even try to do things the 'right' way.
do I think Zion went to Duke for 'free' when there are tapes where his family members are asking for benefits from other schools. Heck no.
Do I have any proof duke or any shoe company or any agent provided benefits to Zion and/or his family - absolutely not.
But i think it stretches rational belief to believe family gave up 6 figure numbers for Zion to go somewhere for free.
It also often not the school paying the SA. Alot of the times it is a shoe company, or an agent/runner who provide benefits to family/friends/influencers to get the SA to go to a school that they are comfortable with (one where they expect the SA will end up back signing a contract with them). There is a reason most of the top Nike kids end up at the top Nike schools, why alot of the top Adidas kids end up at Kansas and L'ville. Some of it has to do with the tradition and quality of the coaches -but that is certainly not always why.
When you see alot of smoke rising from a forest and you don't see a fire you can argue there is no fire because you cannot see it, but that doesn't mean it isn't there.
"Where there's smoke, there's fire" is a good analogy in many cases but that's because there's no other alternative but fire to produce the smoke. In college recruiting SA's could be getting paid but it's nearly equally likely they just choose the schools because the coach has a rep for getting kids to the NBA and playing in the NCAAT. I don't think this analogy is applicable to the college recruiting scandal.
I consider myself rational and don't have any problem believing that Zion and family could forego $100K now, knowing that the multi-million paycheck was coming in a year. If the family was hard up for cash he could have gotten a loan or played overseas. Duke did buy him insurance that would have paid out about 8 Mil if injury occured. For Zion (OAD) , the chance to play for a NC was a once in a lifetime opportunity.
I agree with what you've said about clear evidence being difficult to nearly impossible to obtain. I'm always skeptical when anyone suggests that
"lack of evidence" proves something.
I'm as pissed off as anyone else that Az/LSU coaches remain employed. (NCAA/UNC = LOL) I don't doubt that cheating occurs and was leaning toward believing it massive when the story broke. The primary reason that i became more skeptical about the degree of this cheating is because at the trials, defense attorneys had an open door to subpoena SA and family records, bank statements etc in order to prove the coaches and school involvement.
I'm glad they nailed the ones convicted plus wiretap exposures but i expected a lot more than what came out. thought defense really underwhelmed.
Maybe the FBI has turned over things to the NCAA that we don't know about yet. I'm not going to complain if my skepticism is proven wrong when the NCAA gets around to doing their investigation.