First wave Arizona Emanuel "Book" Richardson, an Arizona assistant since 2009, was among the individuals arrested and indicted in 2017. He was alleged to have met with agent Christian Dawkins and others in June 2017, agreeing to accept a $5,000 bribe to steer Arizona players to Dawkins' sports management company, and he was also charged with accepting an additional $15,000 in bribes and paying at least one recruit to commit to the university. Richardson was suspended on September 26, the day after his arrest, and formally fired on January 23, 2018.
Nassir Little, also a
five-star recruit, cited the investigation as his reason for deciding against attending Arizona. On a wiretap that was played during the trial, Merl Code claims that Arizona offered $150,000 for Little.
Auburn Chuck Person, a former Auburn basketball star who went on to a long
National Basketball Association career before going into coaching, was alleged by the FBI to have received over $90,000 in bribes from Rashan Michel, a former NBA and
Southeastern Conference referee who ran a custom tailoring shop in
Atlanta that had many professional athletes as clients. Person was accused of paying nearly $20,000 to the families of two active Auburn players. Person was indicted by a federal grand jury and subsequently fired by Auburn on November 7, 2017. In the wake of the indictments, the university retained an outside law firm to launch an internal investigation into the program. Before Auburn's exhibition game on November 2, 2017, the school announced that it would hold players
Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy out of games indefinitely due to eligibility concerns raised over the FBI investigation. They would both be held out of action throughout the rest of the season, though they returned to play after the conclusion of that season. On November 8, ESPN reported that head coach
Bruce Pearl refused to cooperate with the school's internal investigation, and that university officials notified him that the refusal could lead to his firing. The university had been unable to determine whether Pearl had been involved in any violations of law or
NCAA rules because the FBI had seized his computers and cell phones as part of its investigation. Montgomery ultimately committed to
Kentucky in April 2018.
Louisville Louisville was not named directly in the court documents, but the documents mentioned a "University-6" that was "a public research university located in Kentucky" with "approximately 22,640 students and over 7,000 faculty and staff members", and fielding "approximately 21 varsity sports teams in NCAA Division I competition." The state has only two public research universities—the
University of Kentucky and the
University of Louisville—and the details cited in the documents match only Louisville. Gregory Postel, Louisville's interim president, confirmed hours after the FBI announcements that the school was indeed "University-6". At the time of the announcement, the Louisville men's basketball program was facing major NCAA sanctions stemming from an
earlier sex scandal, which included vacating the 2013 national championship. The documents allege that the coaches were involved in a scheme by which a "Company-1", later identified as Adidas, would funnel $100,000 to the family of "Player-10" in exchange for him coming to Louisville. About a month before the scandal broke, Louisville, which has been Adidas' flagship college athletic program since 2016, signed a 10-year, $160 million extension to its then-current apparel contract with the company.No one swings a bigger dick than Coach-2 at Company-1. . . . All [Coach-2] has to do is pick up the phone and call somebody [and say], 'These are my guys.' [And then] they're taking care of us. Bowen was suspended from the team and withheld from all team activities. In addition, two five-star high school recruits who had verbally committed to join the Louisville program in 2018–19, Anfernee Simons and Courtney Ramey, rescinded their commitments and reopened their recruitment. Simons would try his luck with entering the
2018 NBA draft as a
high school postgraduate. The Cardinals lost a third recruit on October 4 when David Johnson, a guard from the local
Trinity High School who was rated as a top-50 prospect in the recruiting class of 2019 and had verbally committed to Louisville, rescinded his commitment (Johnson would re-commit to Louisville a year later). Two other five-star prospects for 2018 who had placed Louisville within their final choices,
Moses Brown and
Romeo Langford removed the Cardinals from their lists in the wake of the scandal. On October 6 the University of Louisville placed associate head coach Kenny Johnson and assistant coach Jordan Fair on paid administrative leave, and Fair would be fired by Louisville on October 11. The Louisville athletics board officially voted to fire Pitino on October 16. Two days later, the university's board of trustees voted 10–3 to fire Jurich with cause. On November 8, the Southern District unsealed a new set of indictments against eight of the 10 individuals initially charged. On the same day,
NBC News reported that these new documents directly linked Pitino to the alleged scheme to pay Bowen's family. The documents allege that Pitino met in July 2017 with Christian Dawkins, an agent who was formally indicted in both September and November. During that meeting, Dawkins was said to have asked Pitino to call Gatto and request the $100,000 payment to Bowen's family, and Pitino reportedly agreed to make the call to Gatto. The FBI revealed that phone records indicated that Pitino called Gatto three times before Bowen committed to Louisville. The April 2018 indictments specifically charge Dawkins and Adidas consultant Merl Code with conspiring with Gatto to commit wire fraud and pay the aforementioned $100,000 to Bowen's family.
Miami Like Louisville, the
University of Miami was not directly identified in the court documents, but UM president
Julio Frenk confirmed on September 27 that the school was the institution described in said documents as "University-7". The confirmation came the day after the attorney for UM head coach
Jim Larrañaga said that the coach was unaware of any impropriety in the program. The documents allege that a UM coach identified only as "Coach-3" requested that Gatto arrange a $150,000 payment from Adidas to the family of a top high school player identified as "Player-12" in an attempt to keep him from signing with a "University-4" that was sponsored by a rival apparel company. This alleged $150,000 payment was also included in the April 2018 indictments. Oklahoma State lost one potential recruit due to the scandal. On the same day Evans was fired, Antwann Jones, a guard ranked by ESPN as one of the top 50 players in the recruiting class of 2018, rescinded a verbal commitment he had made to the program less than two weeks earlier. Evans was sentenced to three months in prison in June 2019 for his participation in the scheme, which he also conducted at the University of South Carolina. In June 2020, a press release by the NCAA announced that the men’s basketball team will be prohibited from participating in 2020-21 postseason competition and the university will self-impose a fine of $10,000 plus 1 percent of the men’s basketball program’s budget.
Alabama In the aftermath of the announcement of the FBI investigation,
Alabama director of basketball operations Kobie Baker resigned following an internal investigation into the program. This resignation came after the school uncovered that Baker had accepted bribes to steer one of Alabama's incoming freshman players toward financial advisor Rashan Michel. Baker allegedly accepted a $5,000 payment for arranging a meeting between Michel and the father of the player, and an additional $10,000 for helping to steer the player toward Michel. Before Alabama's exhibition game on November 6, 2017, the school announced that freshman point guard
Collin Sexton would not play that game nor the first regular season game against
Memphis due to eligibility concerns. Sexton would later be cleared to play for Alabama starting with their November 14 game against
Lipscomb.
USC On September 26, federal prosecutors in
New York announced charges of fraud and corruption against USC assistant coach Tony Bland. The charges allege that Bland and others allegedly received benefits from financial advisers and others to influence student-athletes to retain their services. Following the announcement, USC placed Bland on administrative leave and announced that it would conduct an internal investigation of the matter. After playing in only a few games in the 2017–18 season, on January 15, 2018, sophomore point guard
De'Anthony Melton was indefinitely suspended as a result of the investigation. Melton would later remove himself from the university on February 21, 2018, in order to enter the
2018 NBA draft and begin training for it early, where he was selected 46th by the
Houston Rockets and was later traded to the
Phoenix Suns on August 31 before the upcoming NBA season began. On Friday, December 13, 2019, USC received a notice of allegations from the NCAA in regards to the violations stemming from this investigation into the USC basketball department. In April 2021, the USC men's basketball program was put on probation for two years and fined $5,000, plus one percent of the program's budget.
Second wave Arizona On February 23, 2018, FBI wiretaps reportedly showed that head coach
Sean Miller had discussed with Dawkins about paying
Deandre Ayton $100,000 to facilitate Ayton's commitment to the
University of Arizona, with the monetary situation being dealt with directly to him. 247Sports, which follows high school players and their recruitment, had predicted 99% that Ayton would be attending
University of Kansas the night of his commitment. If he were implicated in this case, it would have potentially hurt Ayton's chances of finishing out the rest of his season with Arizona, as well as result in him entering the
2018 NBA draft earlier than anticipated, similar to that of
De'Anthony Melton. The following day, Miller notified the team that he would not coach in that night's game against
Oregon, with associate coach
Lorenzo Romar coaching the team instead and Ayton being allowed to play for Arizona that game. However, Ayton and his family have maintained they did not earn any monetary benefits to attend Arizona, with further information suggesting that Miller's calls to Dawkins were related to the recruitment of another player instead. This ultimately led to Ayton being cleared to finish out the season with Arizona. On March 1, Miller made his first public comments since the reporting on the wiretaps, in which he unequivocally denied any involvement in payments to players. ESPN reported that Miller would coach the team that night against
Stanford, with Miller confirmed to remain the coach for Arizona throughout the rest of this season, as well as a bit further beyond that. (In part because of the continued corruption investigation, Miller would eventually be fired by Arizona in April 2021.) Arizona, which had already lost one of its three-member 2018 recruiting class after the initial allegations, initially lost its remaining two 2018 recruits after the new revelations. Power forward
Shareef O'Neal, son of
Hall of Fame player
Shaquille O'Neal and rated as a top-30 prospect, announced on February 24 that he was rescinding a commitment he had made in April 2017 to play at Arizona. Because the younger O'Neal signed a nonbinding financial aid agreement instead of a formal letter of intent, he did not need a release from Arizona to choose a new destination, and he would commit to
UCLA three days later.
NC State According to the documents viewed by
Yahoo! Sports, former
NC State and current NBA player
Dennis Smith Jr. had received $43,500 from ASM Sports, an agency run by reported cooperating government witness Andy Miller, before enrolling at the school. Another document said that Smith had received over $70,000 in loans, with the document also including notes about "how to recoup the money" after Smith chose not to sign with ASM Sports. The April 2018 indictments peripherally linked Maryland and its current apparel provider,
Under Armour, to the scandal in a completely separate context, although neither was explicitly named in those documents. The FBI alleged that Gatto and a co-conspirator identified in the documents as "CC-3" agreed to make payments to the guardian of a 2017 recruit who was identified by media as
Silvio De Sousa. According to the documents, the guardian told "CC-3" that he had received illicit payments from individuals connected with Under Armour in exchange for De Sousa's commitment to Maryland. The guardian also indicated that De Sousa preferred to go to Kansas, but that he would need to repay the illicit payments to facilitate the player's wishes. Gatto and "CC-3" then allegedly paid the guardian $20,000. De Sousa, who had been considered by most recruiting experts as a virtual lock to attend Maryland, committed to Kansas on August 30, 2017. It should also be noted that shortly after the 2018 indictments were unsealed, De Sousa's guardian denied accepting any illicit payments.
Kentucky A spreadsheet in the documents viewed by Yahoo! Sports listed a $12,000 payment to a prospect identified as "BAM". A later note in the document identifies this individual as
Bam Adebayo, who played only one season at
Kentucky in 2016–17. Other documents claim that Adebayo received $36,500 in loans. Additionally, then-current Wildcats player
Kevin Knox II was listed among several players who had met or dined with Dawkins, or whose families had done so. The university attempted a plea deal acknowledging the payment to De Sousa was used to cover an online class. In April 2019, the university submitted their formal appeal to have De Sousa be re-instated for the 2019–2020 season.
Texas Then-current
Texas player Eric Davis Jr. allegedly received $1,500 from ASM. In addition, former Longhorns player Prince Ibeh was found in Dawkins' list of players and/or families who had met with or dined with Dawkins while in high school or college.
Clemson Former
Clemson star
Jaron Blossomgame reportedly received a payment of $1,100 while at the school.
Other players potentially implicated The ASM documents also indicated that several players, or their family members, had either met or dined with Dawkins while the players were in high school or college. According to a lawyer involved with NCAA compliance issues who was interviewed in the Yahoo! Sports report, merely meeting with an agent is not an NCAA violation, but if the agent pays for a player's or family member's meal, the meal can be considered an "extra benefit" under NCAA rules. In addition to the aforementioned Knox and Ibeh, the following then-current and former NCAA players were listed in the ASM documents in this context: • Current players (at the time of the revelations): •
Wendell Carter Jr.,
Duke •
Collin Sexton,
Alabama • Former players: •
Wade Baldwin,
Vanderbilt •
Tony Bradley,
North Carolina •
Malcolm Brogdon,
Virginia •
Demetrius Jackson,
Notre Dame •
Monte Morris,
Iowa State •
Justin Patton,
Creighton == Legal outcomes ==