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Documents and bank records obtained in discovery during the federal investigation into the underbelly of college basketball detail in meticulous fashion the expenditures of prominent former NBA agent Andy Miller, his former associate Christian Dawkins and his agency, ASM Sports. They include expense reports and balance sheets that list cash advances, as well as entertainment and travel expenses for high school and college prospects and their families. Yahoo Sports viewed hundreds of pages of documents from the years-long probe that had federal authorities monitoring multiple targets and intercepting more than 4,000 calls across 330 days, providing a clear-eyed view into the pervasive nature of the game’s underground economy. While three criminal cases tied to the investigation may take years to play out, the documents viewed by Yahoo revealed the extent of the potential NCAA ramifications from the case. The documents show an underground recruiting operation that could create NCAA rules issues – both current and retroactive – for at least 20 Division I basketball programs and more than 25 players. The documents tie some of the biggest names and programs in the sport to activity that appears to violate the NCAA’s amateurism rules. This could end up casting a pall over the NCAA tournament because of eligibility issues. There’s potential impermissible benefits and preferential treatment for players and families of players at Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Michigan State, USC, Alabama and a host of other schools. The documents link some of the sport’s biggest current stars – Michigan State’s Miles Bridges, Alabama’s Collin Sexton and Duke’s Wendell Carter – to specific potential extra benefits for either the athletes or their family members. The amounts tied to players in the case range from basic meals to tens of thousands of dollars. NCAA president Mark Emmert released a statement Friday morning to address the latest developments in the corruption probe. “These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America. Simply put, people who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports. They are an affront to all those who play by the rules,” the statement read. “Following the Southern District of New York’s indictments last year, the NCAA Board of Governors and I formed the independent Commission on College Basketball, chaired by Condoleezza Rice, to provide recommendations on how to clean up the sport. With these latest allegations, it’s clear this work is more important now than ever. The Board and I are completely committed to making transformational changes to the game and ensuring all involved in college basketball do so with integrity. We also will continue to cooperate with the efforts of federal prosecutors to identify and punish the unscrupulous parties seeking to exploit the system through criminal acts.” read more: https://sports.yahoo.com/exclusive-federal-documents-detail-sweeping-potential-ncaa-violations-involving-high-profile-players-schools-103338484.html

When interviewing a college administrator, coach or athlete, every sportswriter has at one time or another thought, "If only I could get these people under oath." That's exactly what has happened the past two weeks in Oakland, Calif., during the trial concerning the lawsuit filed by former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon against the NCAA over NILs, i.e. names, images and likenesses of athletes used by the NCAA in both television broadcast rights and marketing. O'Bannon believes student-athletes are entitled to the money that comes from those NILs. The NCAA argues paying players would violate the body's core values of amateurism. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken expects to wrap up the bench trial this week before rendering her decision at a later date. That decision is sure to be appealed. However, after the trial's first two weeks, news accounts have given us some interesting tidbits. Here are six: 1. The NCAA itself suspected that there could be a future legal problem with using players' names, images and likenesses. Read more: http://www.gogamecocks.com/2014/06/21/599952/john-clay-what-were-learning-about.html

In Gilman School football parlance, it’s called recruiting fatigue. After guiding the Baltimore-based Greyhounds for 16 years, Biff Poggi can immediately recognize the symptoms. First, the college coach calls, wondering why Recruit X switched off his cell phone’s voice mail, or why his Facebook account lay dormant for several days. Poggi then approaches the player, asking about a broken phone. “No,” the player typically responds. “I’m just tired of talking.” Thursday, the NCAA Board of Directors will meet in Indianapolis to reconsider legislation deregulating communication between coaches and recruits. Seventy-five schools requested an override of the initial proposal, which eliminated phone call limitations and overturned periodic bans on text messaging. Last week, the board also suspended two other proposals that lifted restrictions on which staff members can recruit and which printed materials they can send to prospects. The issue has frustrated many since the Board of Directors initially tried to simplify the NCAA’s rulebook by passing 25 changes last January, including the contentious deregulation measures. Big Ten coaches and athletic directors issued a collective statement expressing “serious concerns” about their “adverse effect.” Maryland football coach Randy Edsall called it “ridiculous.” Towson’s Rob Ambrose appreciated the reform effort, but said he “hasn’t met a single person who’s in favor of it.” The Board of Directors can either “maintain its action on the proposals” or “rescind the proposals,” according to an NCAA press release. If it passes, most athletic officials and coaches forecast an unregulated environment in which recruits are bombarded with calls, letters and text messages. Speaking at the Football Bowl Association annual meetings, NCAA President Mark Emmert defended the action. Monitoring calls and text messages, he said, was virtually impossible. “I think the NCAA is going to find out that this is going to be a disaster with kids,” Poggi said. “However, they can’t control it anyway, which is why they’re opening it up. The reasons the rules are coming down is because they can’t enforce them, but it will wind up backlashing onto the kids, which is what always happens. The kids wind up getting the short end of the stick always.” Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/highschools/ncaa-recruiting-rule-changes-on-phone-calls-and-texts-spark-divisions/2013/05/01/057932ea-b28c-11e2-9a98-4be1688d7d84_story.html