The FBI further scratched the surface of its investigation into college basketball recruiting this morning by releasing expense reports detailing the 2015 misconduct of ASM Sports agents.
According to Yahoo! Sports, this is just the beginning portion of an investigation that could rock the NCAA to its core.
This is a follow-up to the FBI’s investigation into corruption and Adidas’ involvement in recruiting from last September.Related:
FBI arrests NCAA assistant coaches and Adidas executives
This time, the investigation is into a sports agency called ASM Sports and whether it was giving money to high school and college athletes and their families. Athletes receiving money would end their amateur status, and with it, their NCAA eligibility.
Yahoo! Sports published a picture of a 2015 expense report for ASM Sports, obtained by the FBI during discovery for three current court cases.
Notable names on that document include: former Wichita State player Fred VanVleet, current South Carolina player Brian Bowen (who was involved in a previous investigation while at Louisville), former Utah player Kyle Kuzma and Apples Jones, mother of former KU player Josh Jackson.
All of those people allegedly received total funds in excess of $1,000 according to the document.
The mother of Miles Bridges, a current player at Michigan State, allegedly received hundreds of dollars
More detailed expense spreadsheets from 2016 were also published that included amounts of money and dates of advances, flights and dinners with athletes. Those reports included plane tickets for Bowen and his parents totaling more than $15,000.
It also detailed additional cash advances to Bowen, VanVleet and Jones and $800 to former number one overall NBA Draft pick Markelle Fultz, who was still at Washington at the time.
Schools with current players who are named in either document include: Alabama, Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State, South Carolina, Texas and Southern California.
It’s possible that the NCAA could vacate each of those school’s current seasons. That will likely be the extent of NCAA sanctions unless the NCAA can find proof that the schools knew about their players taking money from ASM.
More schools have former players who are listed in the documents that were not professionals at the time of the incidents. Those schools are Clemson, Creighton, Iowa State, KU, Louisville. LSU, Maryland, NC State, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Seton Hall, Utah, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Washington, Wichita State and Xavier.
Schools will likely have to vacate all competitions in which the named athletes competed, if the NCAA hands down any punishment to these schools at all.
The FBI’s criminal cases will likely take years to develop, and this is probably just the tip of the iceberg of schools and players involved.
The Yahoo! Sports exclusive and the documents can be found here.
