NCAA Basketball landscape could be forever altered by FBI investigation

The FBI investigation into illegal activity within the confines of NCAA basketball could do more than just alter careers, it could change the entire sport.

NCAA basketball fans, brace yourselves. This is just the beginning. The FBI has named and arrested several assistant coaches in an ongoing investigation regarding bribery and kickbacks within the sport, but I fear we’ve only seen a slight inkling of what’s to come.

So far, beyond those arrests, this brewing cauldron of shame looks to have cost Louisville head basketball coach Rick Pitino and athletic director Tom Jurich their jobs. It would seem unlikely that Pitino would be the only head coach to go down from this massive scandal.

While coach firings and athletic department reorganizations will probably dominate the news cycle for a while, we may see even more drastic changes within the entire NCAA basketball landscape.

The FBI has already stated this investigation is ongoing, and there are rampant rumors about other big name and blue-blood programs being implicated in the future. If your program was in bed with Adidas or just about any other shoe company, you can bet there will be something turned up by the feds.

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For those who were looking for reform in college basketball recruiting, you may very well get your wish.

However, it may not be the type of reform for which you were hoping.

While removing the slush money provided by shoe companies and their exclusive deals with various schools will be a start, the actual recruiting process and rules governing enrollment, scholarships and transfers may end up being completely overhauled.

Things could take a positive spin, favoring both the fans and the student-athletes.

Students being “locked in” to a school by accepting a scholarship may become a thing of the past, and mandatory rules forcing players to sit for a year after transferring could almost certainly be abolished (as well they should be).

College basketball may finally become the deep pool of amateurism which it was intended to be, and programs bogarting top recruits for reasons other than coaching excellence and program reputation could at last come to an end.

If you enjoy seeing mid-major programs succeed, and grow weary of a handful of teams who wear blue dominating the sport each year, this would be great news for you.

On the other hand, it could become the end of NCAA basketball as we know it.

The dreaded day of “let’s just pay these kids” may be at our doorstep. The idea of a program being affiliated with a school could come to a halt, and the NCAA would give up control, turning college basketball into a semi-pro league who simply chooses to host their games at and wear the colors of the school where the team resides.

The only revenue generated by the school would be the rental of the home auditorium and facilities.

There would be no eligibility maintenance needed, because players would simply be that – just players, not students.

If that should happen, the already developing ripple effect would turn into an unstoppable tsunami, covering every revenue-generating sport at every Division 1 school. College sports would become leagues of paid developmental players, and the NCAA would be a skeleton organization with oversight of a few non-revenue sports.

We’re a long way from that day, but investigations and indictments such as these are exactly the kind of spark which could light that fire.

Scary thought for the average fan.

This is a wake-up call for all the people in power, from the NCAA all the way down to every assistant coach and scout. The time for actual reform has come. The bloated salaries, payments and perks to blue-chip players and all which comes with it needs to end.

The saying is often repeated, if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying. Well, now we are starting to see – given modern technology and forensic accountants – if you cheat, you’re going to be caught.

As more schools are named and more dominoes begin to fall, the scope of how deep this problem runs will be exposed. How those in power handle it will forever shape college basketball in this country.

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