All the info you need as college hoops' biggest scandal goes to trial
ALL OF COLLEGE basketball will be focused on a New York courtroom starting Monday, as the government argues its case in the biggest bribery and corruption scandal in the sport's history.
One year ago, FBI agents arrested 10 men after a clandestine two-year investigation. Three of the eight remaining defendants -- Adidas executive James Gatto, Adidas consultant Merl Code and Christian Dawkins, a former AAU director and runner for a well-known NBA agent -- are the first to be tried, on charges that they conspired to pay high school prospects and/or their families to sign with Adidas-sponsored schools Kansas, Louisville, Miami and North Carolina State.
Ever since that initial news conference in New York, in which federal agents warned rogue coaches, sneaker company employees and middlemen that the federal government had their "playbook," not much has changed about the sport -- on or off the court.
"I think people are probably talking less about cheating," one Power 5 conference coach told ESPN. "But I don't think people have stopped cheating."
Only former Louisville coach Rick Pitino, athletics director Tom Jurich and a handful of assistant coaches lost their jobs after the scandal broke. Other schools and coaches could be drawn in as government and defense lawyers lay out details from the FBI investigation -- only a few days after most Division I programs opened practices for the upcoming season.
The federal trial, the first of three scheduled between now and next April in Manhattan, is expected to take at least three weeks.
In a superseding indictment filed in April, the government alleged the defendants defrauded certain NCAA Division I universities by causing them to issue athletic-based financial aid to players who were ineligible because their families had received illicit payments to sign with Adidas-sponsored schools -- and later sign with certain agents, financial advisers and the sneaker company once they turned pro.
Prosecutors allege the defendants created economic harm to the universities because the schools could face potential NCAA penalties, including fines, scholarship losses and postseason bans, for playing ineligible student-athletes.
The defendants all have pleaded not guilty. Their attorneys are expected to admit in court that their clients broke NCAA rules -- a lot of them. But they're expected to argue that while paying players to attend certain universities is one of the NCAA's greatest sins, it isn't a federal crime. They contend that the defendants never intended to harm the universities, but to actually help them by steering five-star players to certain teams.
Here's a rundown of the key figures and schools involved in USA vs. Gatto, et al:
The rogue FBI agent
The government is trying to limit what defense attorneys can say and ask in court about a rogue undercover FBI agent, who was at the center of the government's clandestine investigation.
The unnamed agent has been accused of misappropriating federal money and spending it on gambling, food and beverages during the two-year investigation. The Wall Street Journal reported in February that the Justice Department launched an investigation into the undercover agent's alleged misbehavior in 2017. Last month, the government asked Judge Kaplan to preclude defense attorneys from mentioning the agent's alleged bad acts in front of jurors.
