IMPUNITY

               We writers like to play with words and ones I’ve been playing with of late stem from “seam.” According to the dictionary “seamy” means sordid or disreputable, while a seam is the line along which two pieces of fabric are joined. Thus, “seamless” means an easy or invisible meld.

               Both apply to the season of college basketball that’s now playing out in the wake of the two-year FBI investigation and later trials that revealed under-the-table payments of up to six figures to recruits at a large handful of schools by the shoe company Adidas, funneled through various intermediaries. That’s seamy, huh?

               Alas, if ever an investigation promised much but yielded little it was this one. The Feebs went deep-sea fishing but landed minnows, the only people finally charged being college assistant coaches, would-be player agents and mid-level Adidas functionaries. This was consistent with past NCAA probes of misdeeds by the schools it oversees, which rarely touch the sports’ leaders. One coaching big-timer—Louisville’s Rick Pitino—lost his job as a result of the revelations, but his really was a sort of lifetime-achievement penalty, culminating a long trail of professional and personal slime.

               Two other top coaches-- Kansas’s Bill Self and Arizona’s Sean Miller—were implicated in the probe through intercepted texts and wiretapped telephone conversations, but neither was charged or, even, called as a witness. That’s a head-scratcher if there ever was one. Miller was suspended by his school but quickly reinstated, Self slipped through unscathed except, maybe, reputation-wise.  Both continue to float seamlessly to victory on the floor and in recruiting, Kansas ranking 3rd nationally in the latest Associated Press poll and Arizona 25th with a mostly freshman cast. The wicked flourish like green bay trees, especially ones with winning records, right?

               At this point one legitimately might ask just what those involved in the Adidas matter did wrong. Giving money to prospective college students is prohibited only to athletes governed by NCAA rules, so what laws were shown to have been violated? Moreover, crimes require victims and it was hard to discern any here, all the participants in the schemes seemingly benefitting.

 To answer those questions the cases’ prosecutors, with judicial approval, had to turn the law on its ear, first by giving criminal force to the NCAA rule book and then by declaring the colleges involved to have been victims of fraud, even though it was their coffers that would be filled by the young basketballers recruited with Adidas dollars. Never raised as an issue were the billions of dollars that directly flow from shoe companies, plural, to college athletics departments in return for their using (and, thus, advertising) their brands. For instance, the U. of Kansas is in the early years of a 14-year, $196 million contract calling for its teams to use Adidas gear exclusively.  It’s no wonder that it and the other schools involved in the cases were referred to as “Adidas schools.”

The biggest individual beneficiaries of shoe-company largess are the head coaches of big-time college basketball and football teams, many of whom individually clear seven-figure annual sums from the deals.  Those payments are part of what turns public employees such as Self and Miller into plutocrats, Self’s annual income reported at about $4 million and Miller’s at almost $3 million. According to CNNMoney, at most NCAA “power-conference” schools the salaries of head basketball and football coaches exceed the dollar value of all the athletics scholarship the institutions award. It’s such things that spread a smell of hypocrisy and exploitation over college sports generally.

But while it might be excessive to chant “lock him up” in the presence of Self or Miller, “kick him out” might be apt. Each violated the first rule of the sort of conspiracy in which they were involved, namely “don’t get caught.”  The NCAA rule on the subject is clear: a “head coach is presumed to be responsible for the actions of all staff members who report, directly or indirectly, to the head coach.”  That rule has been honored mostly in the breach because the people who occupy the job are careful to preserve deniability by placing others between themselves and any improper acts within their regimes. That was pretty much blown in the trials stemming from the investigation.

In Miller’s case, one of his assistants, Emmanuel “Book” Richardson, was sentenced to three months in prison and fined for accepting $20,000 for steering players toward an agent, an arm of the larger plot. Richardson said after sentencing that he had “no knowledge” of Miller paying players or attempting to do so, but wiretapped evidence was presented in which he and the agent Christian Dawkins discussed Miller having “bought” former Arizona star Deandre Ayton and “taking care of” Rawle Alkins, another UA player. Other testimony had Ayton’s family receiving $10,000 a month during his year in Tucson.

Self’s involvement came through most clearly in the testimony of T. J. Gassnola, an Adidas consultant who was sentenced to probation for his role in the schemes after admitting he made payments to several sought-after recruits for agreeing to attend Kansas, one totaling $90,000. Gassnola said Self not only acknowledged the efforts but also encouraged it.

One exchange put into evidence had Gassnola texting Self about a prospect he was paying, with Self asking “We good?” and Gassnola answering “Always. That’s light work.” Later, Gassnola texted Self bragging about keeping him and Kansas supplied with future NBA lottery picks. Self responded, “That’s how it works... at UNC and Duke.”

The trials are just about over but the NCAA has stepped in by announcing investigations of its own into the matter, with both Kansas and Arizona among the targets. Self and Miller have vehemently denied any wrongdoing and their schools are supporting them. In the past, about the most individual head coaches have paid when their schools were caught in major rules violations were a few games’ suspensions, on top of such institutional wrist-slaps as victory forfeits, scholarship reductions and post-season bans. To do more might be bad for business and that’s the last thing the NCAA wants.