College Basketball: How are Jim Gatto, Adidas involved in FBI Investigation?

A massive scandal of fraud and corruption is gripping the college basketball world — and at the center of it is Adidas exec Jim Gatto.

The thought that shoe companies have all the power has been prevalent for some time now in college basketball, but we have received somewhat of a confirmation of that theory, as an FBI investigation into fraud and corruption involving college basketball resulted in the arrest of Adidas director of global sports marketing for basketball Jim Gatto.

Gatto allegedly paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to influence players to attend Adidas sponsored schools, which is a bit surprising seeing as many of the coaches who were implicated hailed from Nike sponsored schools.

10 total have been arrested as a part of this investigation so far including four assistant college coaches, but this scandal is not over. I expect it to actually get much worse from here as more is revealed and other come forward. In fact, the FBI has basically told college basketball coaches to go ahead and confess because they are still investigating, and one of the witnesses only spoke because of the threat of being charged.

What’s more, is that U.S. Attorney Jim Coon has said that the NCAA had no idea that these investigations were ongoing, leading me to believe that the NCAA will be prepared to hand out a lot of punishment to schools after the conclusion of the FBI investigation.

Next: How is Brian Bowen involved in FBI investigation?

We here at Busting Brackets will keep you updated with this story as more information is revealed.