NCAA Basketball: Brian Bowen Jr. simply playing the NCAA’s game

Brian Bowen Jr. and his recruitment have been a part of a highly publicized trial regarding the dark side of NCAA Basketball. Should the details involved really be that surprising?

Brian Bowen Sr. never thought it would come to this. How many parents would ever anticipate testifying in federal court, laying out the groundwork behind multiple compensation deals that schools and shoe executives offered him for his son to play NCAA basketball?

And yet, that was just where Bowen Sr. found himself on Thursday, as he testified under oath during the ongoing trial that looked to build off of the FBI’s probe into college basketball recruitment.

Beyond Louisville’s six-figure offer, SI’s Emily Caron lays out in detail the multitude of offers that Bowen Sr. claims he received for Brian Jr.’s  services:

"Louisville was just one of many schools recruiting Bowen Jr. and offering his father money in the process. Bowen Sr. said his offers also included bribes from several assistant coaches on teams attempting to land his son. While Bowen Sr.’s direct examination is only halfway complete, a $50,000 offer from ex-Arizona assistant coach Joe Pasternack, a $150,000 cash offer that also included an additional $8,000 for a car and undisclosed amounts for a house from ex-Oklahoma State assistant coach Lamont Evans and a $100,000 offer with a promise of employment from Creighton were already unveiled, per Wetzel."

These revelations from Thursday’s testimony have only solidified what has been known in college basketball circles for some time: it’s a pay-to-play system.

If you’re a university looking to compete at the highest levels, it’s a pretty simple formula. Do you want to win the most games? Recruit the best players, and do whatever is necessary to get them to come to your campus.

But you know what the best players in the country have realized? They are worth money — a lot of it. Brian Bowen Jr. is just one of a host of athletes who know their worth and are not willing to settle for the NCAA’s freakishly outdated student-athlete basis.

The NCAA’s complicity in this is crystal-clear.

Defenders of the NCAA might point to the NCAA’s lack of regulatory power and would point to the bad-apple schools and shady external figures (shoe companies, AAU coaches, etc.) as the clear and sole culprits.

However, it’s hard to give a real legitimacy to takes like these when you consider what matters most in all of this: money.

Based on their audited financial statements, the NCAA cleared $1 billion in revenue for the 2017 fiscal year, and schools obviously got a decent chunk of that.

The NCAA distributes money to participants in the NCAA Tournament — schools apparently have always realized the incentives to fielding excellent teams, because good play coupled with postseason success equals dollar signs.

The shock that exists in multiple areas of society when allegations of corruption in college sports truly boggles the mind of anyone with any ability to read the tea leaves that are thrust right in front of them on a daily basis.

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All it takes is for anyone to flip on the sports network of their choice: you will find that these kids who are out there “for the love of the game” are playing in a game that is saturated with ad and TV revenue that is changing hands right above their heads.

High-revenue sports are commanding TV contracts that are astronomical. In 2016, CBS, Turner and the NCAA came to an $8 billion plus agreement that secured broadcasting rights of the NCAA Tournament through 2032. Compensation of players is not being held up by a lack of funds.

Those who oppose the idea of paying players will constantly tell you that players are already receiving benefits in scholarships and meals that are equal to (or outweigh) their worth as athletes. But how can anyone honestly look at the revenue that is generated off the backs of these players and not call it what is — blatant exploitation?

When a college basketball coach can be paid millions of dollars to stand on the side of the court while these same athletes put their bodies on the line and receive no fitting compensation, the system isn’t broken: it’s shattered.

The student-athlete model currently in place in the NCAA is not built to be a sound foundation in the world of collegiate athletics that currently exists.

It was never built for that.

Brian Bowen Jr. and players like him know the rules. They are just playing the game that the NCAA has forced them to play.