It began long ago…but it came into prominence in the last several years. First of all, one must admit that recruiting star athletes of the highest level has probably always had some level of a “shady” side to it. Recruiting the super-star athletes in basketball, over the past decade or so, has really exploded. Some of the most prominent NCAA basketball coaches have been under tight scrutiny. Who knows exactly when it began… but at some time, it led to shoes… and these shoes are made for walking….from one spot to the next….
…In an effort to sell more shoes AND realizing that youngsters like to emulate their favorite players by ” looking like them”, shoe companies attempted to get the powerhouse mens basketball programs to wear their shoes. Of course, one can easily expect that the AD’s or the highest level coaches who truly run their own program, thought….well…what’s in it for me? Initially, I suspect the shoes were provided at a deeply reduced price or free for the team. But….for some coaches…that may not have been enough. Eventually,not knowing who initiated the idea but attempting to bond this relationship, it was determined that the shoe companies would become part of the recruiting process. Probably, one thing led to another, first….free shoes for the player while he plays in high school. After a while, that wasn’t enough…..the shoe companies then determined that they would pay the recruit to attend the college that was using their shoes. Over time, those payments increased and increased to include family housing or payments. This recruiting technique wasn’t used for all players…. only the super-stars … often the 1 & done type players. I’m going to assume that it went on for a long while and the payments kept increasing. Finally it burst @ Louisville in 2017 when a Coaching Legend lost his job.
…..Rick Pitino was pushed out of his Head Basketball Coaching Position @ Louisville. Pitino has a career record of 770-271 while taking 3 different NCAA schools to the Final Four. As a basketball coach, I read & learned a great deal about pressing defenses from Pitino’s articles & coaching clinics. He had a brilliant basketball mind. However in 2017, Louisville’s board voted unanimously to fire Pitino after allegations against Louisville that included payments of $100,000 to the family of a recruit. No one from Louisville U. was arrested and Pitino has always said he was not aware of any pay-for-play scheme. I REALLY believe that Pitino didn’t know! I would imagine that he, & other head coaches , would indicate to their assistants something to the effect….if you go out of bounds on recruiting violations…don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.
…it continues with other high profile coaches…those shoes kept walking right on up to the top… In early May of 2020.. Kansas Coach Bill Self (over 700 wins) was charged by the NCAA with this statement, “”There can be no doubt the men’s basketball allegations are egregious, severe and are of the kind that significantly undermine and threaten the NCAA collegiate model. The institution, in taking its defiant posture in this case, is indifferent to how its alleged violations may have adversely impacted other NCAA institutions who acted in compliance with NCAA legislation. KU has challenged every major allegation made by the NCAA. KU was hit with five Level I violations — the most aggressive and serious that can be levied against a collegiate institution or university employee. Again, the Head Coach, Bill Self, has a lesser charge—he was assessed with a head coach responsibility charge.(same as Pitino) Meanwhile Kansas Ast Coach, Kurtis Townsend, was levied two Level I violations. The allegations of rule breaking against Kansas are all tied to evidence, witness testimony and information uncovered during the federal government’s bribery trial in April 2019. Kansas was brought into focus when former Adidas consultant T.J. Gassnola testified under oath that he helped facilitate payments to the mother of former KU player Billy Preston and the guardian of current Kansas forward Silvio De Sousa. T.J. Gassnola was compared to infamous 20th century mobster Lucky Luciano by a KU official. Reed described him to NCAA investigators with these words: “He’s a parasite taking advantage of kids and riding their coattails to be a jock sniffer to power coaches and power players in the industry“
…then the winds of scandal began swirling around the treasured castle @ Duke for the 1st time. Since it still is in the “he said-she said stage”, one should not necessarily assume guilt. Zion Williamson, who signed with Prime Sports initially to represent him, he was poached by Creative Artists Agency (CAA) before his career actually began. Prime Sports claims in their lawsuit that Williamson is NOT an amateur. They claim that 1)His mother and stepfather got money from people acting on behalf of Duke, and Nike, to attend Duke. 2) They demanded the same from Adidas. 3) An actual NCAA-certified agent gave the benefits on multiple occasions between 2014 and 2019. This is supported by recordings from Adidas reps discussing how Zion’s stepfather asked for jobs, money, and housing from the company in order to sway Zion toward Kansas. And we also know that Nike representatives openly texted about paying him $35,000 to play in their summer leagues. The NCAA, Duke U, Coach K @ Williamson want this to go away so anticipate a settlement in the Gina Ford v. Zion/CAA lawsuit. Williamson was a superstar @ Duke but…one would have to think…that he isn’t alone in these “shoe” payments. He has just received a “stay” so he doesn’t have to testify in Florida. Immediately, most of us would think that Williamson doesn’t want to testify because he’s hiding something.
… Sooooo…..from where I sit, as I see where college basketball is today… seemingly with ALL the BIG BOYS of the profession involved ,in one way or the other, on shaky ground with Shoe Companies often being a focal point of the recruitment. The Shoes have walked the NCAA into a brand new territory..a bad one.
…the idea being viewed favorably by the NCAA is to permit college athletes to be paid for their name, image or likeness (referred to as NIL by some of the in-crowd). So…as I see it….. our shoes companies could now hire the actual players and have them promote their shoes, schools, etc. with high school (and younger) players. Of course its open to D-1, D-II, D-III school athletes…but let’s be honest, only the big-name teams on television will have the prominence for their players to be recognized and really draw some money from these companies. I’m also wondering if these “amateur” athletes who receive lucrative contracts, would still expect free housing, free food, free education, free access to training facilities, free medical care, free seats for friends/family, etc, etc from their university? Even staying all summer on campus to “work out”(I didn’t hear anything about summer classes) with free housing, free food, free health care seems beyond what the public should be forced to cover financially. Why are the tax payers paying for all these summer freebies when these players, or some of them, are already paid OR will be getting paid for their “NIL”. The “amateur” line seems very, very blurred to me now as compared to a paid professional attending college and earning money for his sports talents. Shockingly, NCAA President Mark Emmert claims publicly & under oath that “amateurism to be the core of college athletics”. Reeeallllly? (did you get the tone )
….Our shoes have just run us to the finish line! Thx for the read!!! Your thoughts are invited and hopefully spread the word to your friends….all my blogs from this year are found on http://www.bobryansportsblog.com (past years will be up soon).

It began long ago…but it came into prominence in the last several years.  First of all, one must admit that recruiting star athletes of the highest level has probably always had some level of a “shady” side to it. Recruiting the super-star athletes in basketball, over the past decade or so, has really exploded. Some of the most prominent NCAA basketball coaches have been under tight scrutiny.  Who knows exactly when it began… but at some time, it led to shoes… and these shoes are made for walking….from one spot to the next….

…In an effort to sell more shoes AND realizing that youngsters like to emulate their favorite players by ” looking like them”, shoe companies attempted to get the powerhouse mens basketball programs to wear their shoes. Of course, one can easily expect that the AD’s or the highest level coaches who truly run their own program, thought….well…what’s in it for me?  Initially, I suspect the shoes were provided at a deeply reduced price or free for the team. But….for some coaches…that may not have been enough.  Eventually,not knowing who initiated the idea but attempting to bond this relationship, it was determined that the shoe companies would become part of the recruiting process. Probably, one thing led to another, first….free shoes for the player while he plays in high school. After a while, that wasn’t enough…..the shoe companies then determined that they would pay the recruit to attend the college that was using their shoes.  Over time, those payments increased and increased to include family housing or payments.  This recruiting technique wasn’t used for all players…. only the super-stars … often the 1 & done type players. I’m going to assume that it went on for a long while and the payments kept increasing.  Finally it burst @ Louisville in 2017 when a Coaching Legend lost his job.

…..Rick Pitino was pushed out of his Head Basketball Coaching Position @ Louisville.  Pitino has a career record of 770-271 while taking 3 different NCAA schools to the Final Four.  As a basketball coach, I read & learned a great deal about pressing defenses from Pitino’s articles & coaching clinics. He had a brilliant basketball mind. However in 2017, Louisville’s board voted unanimously to fire Pitino after allegations against Louisville that included payments of $100,000 to the family of a recruit. No one from Louisville U. was arrested and Pitino has always said he was not aware of any pay-for-play scheme. I REALLY believe that Pitino didn’t know! I would imagine that he, & other head coaches , would indicate to their assistants something to the effect….if you go out of bounds on recruiting violations…don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.

…it continues with other high profile coaches…those shoes kept walking right on up to the top… In early May of 2020.. Kansas Coach Bill Self (over 700 wins) was charged by the NCAA with this statement, “”There can be no doubt the men’s basketball allegations are egregious, severe and are of the kind that significantly undermine and threaten the NCAA collegiate model. The institution, in taking its defiant posture in this case, is indifferent to how its alleged violations may have adversely impacted other NCAA institutions who acted in compliance with NCAA legislation. KU has challenged every major allegation made by the NCAA. KU was hit with five Level I violations — the most aggressive and serious that can be levied against a collegiate institution or university employee. Again, the Head Coach, Bill Self, has a lesser charge—he was assessed with a head coach responsibility charge.(same as Pitino) Meanwhile Kansas Ast Coach, Kurtis Townsend, was levied two Level I violations. The allegations of rule breaking against Kansas are all tied to evidence, witness testimony and information uncovered during the federal government’s bribery trial in April 2019. Kansas was brought into focus when former Adidas consultant T.J. Gassnola testified under oath that he helped facilitate payments to the mother of former KU player Billy Preston and the guardian of current Kansas forward Silvio De Sousa. T.J. Gassnola was compared to infamous 20th century mobster Lucky Luciano by a KU official. Reed described him to NCAA investigators with these words: “He’s a parasite taking advantage of kids and riding their coattails to be a jock sniffer to power coaches and power players in the industry“

…then the winds of scandal began swirling around the treasured castle @ Duke for the 1st time. Since it still is in the “he said-she said stage”, one should not necessarily assume guilt. Zion Williamson, who signed with Prime Sports initially to represent him, he was poached by Creative Artists Agency (CAA) before his career actually began. Prime Sports claims in their lawsuit that Williamson is NOT an amateur. They claim that 1)His mother and stepfather got money from people acting on behalf of Duke, and Nike, to attend Duke. 2)  They demanded the same from Adidas. 3) An actual NCAA-certified agent gave the benefits on multiple occasions between 2014 and 2019.   This is supported by recordings from Adidas reps discussing how Zion’s stepfather asked for jobs, money, and housing from the company in order to sway Zion toward Kansas. And we also know that Nike representatives openly texted about paying him $35,000 to play in their summer leagues. The NCAA, Duke U, Coach K @ Williamson want this to go away so anticipate a settlement in the Gina Ford v. Zion/CAA lawsuit. Williamson was a superstar @ Duke but…one would have to think…that he isn’t alone in these “shoe” payments.  He has just received a “stay” so he doesn’t have to testify in Florida. Immediately, most of us would think that Williamson doesn’t want to testify because he’s hiding something.  

… Sooooo…..from where I sit, as I see where college basketball is today… seemingly with ALL the BIG BOYS of the profession involved ,in one way or the other, on shaky ground with Shoe Companies often being a focal point of the recruitment. The Shoes have walked the NCAA into a brand new territory..a bad one.

…the idea being viewed favorably by the NCAA is to permit college athletes to be paid for their name, image or likeness (referred to as NIL by some of the in-crowd). So…as I see it….. our shoes companies could now hire the actual players and have them promote their shoes, schools, etc. with high school (and younger) players. Of course its open to D-1, D-II, D-III school athletes…but let’s be honest, only the big-name teams on television will have the prominence for their players to be recognized and really draw some money from these companies.  I’m also wondering if these “amateur” athletes who receive lucrative contracts, would still expect free housing, free food, free education, free access to training facilities, free medical care, free seats for friends/family, etc, etc  from their university? Even staying  all summer on campus to “work out”(I didn’t hear anything about summer classes) with free housing, free food, free health care seems beyond what the public should be forced to cover financially. Why are the tax payers paying for all these summer freebies when these players, or some of them, are already paid OR will be getting paid for their “NIL”.  The “amateur” line seems very, very blurre

It began long ago…but it came into prominence in the last several years. First of all, one must admit that recruiting star athletes of the highest level has probably always had some level of a “shady” side to it. Recruiting the super-star athletes in basketball, over the past decade or so, has really exploded. Some of the most prominent NCAA basketball coaches have been under tight scrutiny. Who knows exactly when it began… but at some time, it led to shoes… and these shoes are made for walking….from one spot to the next….
…In an effort to sell more shoes AND realizing that youngsters like to emulate their favorite players by ” looking like them”, shoe companies attempted to get the powerhouse mens basketball programs to wear their shoes. Of course, one can easily expect that the AD’s or the highest level coaches who truly run their own program, thought….well…what’s in it for me? Initially, I suspect the shoes were provided at a deeply reduced price or free for the team. But….for some coaches…that may not have been enough. Eventually,not knowing who initiated the idea but attempting to bond this relationship, it was determined that the shoe companies would become part of the recruiting process. Probably, one thing led to another, first….free shoes for the player while he plays in high school. After a while, that wasn’t enough…..the shoe companies then determined that they would pay the recruit to attend the college that was using their shoes. Over time, those payments increased and increased to include family housing or payments. This recruiting technique wasn’t used for all players…. only the super-stars … often the 1 & done type players. I’m going to assume that it went on for a long while and the payments kept increasing. Finally it burst @ Louisville in 2017 when a Coaching Legend lost his job.
…..Rick Pitino was pushed out of his Head Basketball Coaching Position @ Louisville. Pitino has a career record of 770-271 while taking 3 different NCAA schools to the Final Four. As a basketball coach, I read & learned a great deal about pressing defenses from Pitino’s articles & coaching clinics. He had a brilliant basketball mind. However in 2017, Louisville’s board voted unanimously to fire Pitino after allegations against Louisville that included payments of $100,000 to the family of a recruit. No one from Louisville U. was arrested and Pitino has always said he was not aware of any pay-for-play scheme. I REALLY believe that Pitino didn’t know! I would imagine that he, & other head coaches , would indicate to their assistants something to the effect….if you go out of bounds on recruiting violations…don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.
…it continues with other high profile coaches…those shoes kept walking right on up to the top… In early May of 2020.. Kansas Coach Bill Self (over 700 wins) was charged by the NCAA with this statement, “”There can be no doubt the men’s basketball allegations are egregious, severe and are of the kind that significantly undermine and threaten the NCAA collegiate model. The institution, in taking its defiant posture in this case, is indifferent to how its alleged violations may have adversely impacted other NCAA institutions who acted in compliance with NCAA legislation. KU has challenged every major allegation made by the NCAA. KU was hit with five Level I violations — the most aggressive and serious that can be levied against a collegiate institution or university employee. Again, the Head Coach, Bill Self, has a lesser charge—he was assessed with a head coach responsibility charge.(same as Pitino) Meanwhile Kansas Ast Coach, Kurtis Townsend, was levied two Level I violations. The allegations of rule breaking against Kansas are all tied to evidence, witness testimony and information uncovered during the federal government’s bribery trial in April 2019. Kansas was brought into focus when former Adidas consultant T.J. Gassnola testified under oath that he helped facilitate payments to the mother of former KU player Billy Preston and the guardian of current Kansas forward Silvio De Sousa. T.J. Gassnola was compared to infamous 20th century mobster Lucky Luciano by a KU official. Reed described him to NCAA investigators with these words: “He’s a parasite taking advantage of kids and riding their coattails to be a jock sniffer to power coaches and power players in the industry“
…then the winds of scandal began swirling around the treasured castle @ Duke for the 1st time. Since it still is in the “he said-she said stage”, one should not necessarily assume guilt. Zion Williamson, who signed with Prime Sports initially to represent him, he was poached by Creative Artists Agency (CAA) before his career actually began. Prime Sports claims in their lawsuit that Williamson is NOT an amateur. They claim that 1)His mother and stepfather got money from people acting on behalf of Duke, and Nike, to attend Duke. 2) They demanded the same from Adidas. 3) An actual NCAA-certified agent gave the benefits on multiple occasions between 2014 and 2019. This is supported by recordings from Adidas reps discussing how Zion’s stepfather asked for jobs, money, and housing from the company in order to sway Zion toward Kansas. And we also know that Nike representatives openly texted about paying him $35,000 to play in their summer leagues. The NCAA, Duke U, Coach K @ Williamson want this to go away so anticipate a settlement in the Gina Ford v. Zion/CAA lawsuit. Williamson was a superstar @ Duke but…one would have to think…that he isn’t alone in these “shoe” payments. He has just received a “stay” so he doesn’t have to testify in Florida. Immediately, most of us would think that Williamson doesn’t want to testify because he’s hiding something.
… Sooooo…..from where I sit, as I see where college basketball is today… seemingly with ALL the BIG BOYS of the profession involved ,in one way or the other, on shaky ground with Shoe Companies often being a focal point of the recruitment. The Shoes have walked the NCAA into a brand new territory..a bad one.
…the idea being viewed favorably by the NCAA is to permit college athletes to be paid for their name, image or likeness (referred to as NIL by some of the in-crowd). So…as I see it….. our shoes companies could now hire the actual players and have them promote their shoes, schools, etc. with high school (and younger) players. Of course its open to D-1, D-II, D-III school athletes…but let’s be honest, only the big-name teams on television will have the prominence for their players to be recognized and really draw some money from these companies. I’m also wondering if these “amateur” athletes who receive lucrative contracts, would still expect free housing, free food, free education, free access to training facilities, free medical care, free seats for friends/family, etc, etc from their university? Even staying all summer on campus to “work out”(I didn’t hear anything about summer classes) with free housing, free food, free health care seems beyond what the public should be forced to cover financially. Why are the tax payers paying for all these summer freebies when these players, or some of them, are already paid OR will be getting paid for their “NIL”. The “amateur” line seems very, very blurred to me now as compared to a paid professional attending college and earning money for his sports talents. Shockingly, NCAA President Mark Emmert claims publicly & under oath that “amateurism to be the core of college athletics”. Reeeallllly? (did you get the tone )
….Our shoes have just run us to the finish line! Thx for the read!!! Your thoughts are invited and hopefully spread the word to your friends….all my blogs from this year are found on http://www.bobryansportsblog.com (past years will be up soon).

d to me now as compared to a paid professional  attending college and earning money for his sports talents. Shockingly,  NCAA President Mark Emmert claims publicly & under oath that “amateurism to be the core of college athletics”. Reeeallllly? (did you get the tone J) 

….Our shoes have just run us to the finish line! Thx for the read!!! Your thoughts are invited and hopefully spread the word to your friends….all my blogs from this year are found right here on www.bobryansportsblog.com (past years will be up soon).