Sports

Still Illegal To Offer Kids Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars To Play College Basketball At Your School

Guilty on all counts.

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One of the best reasons to pay college athletes — most likely a cut of the revenue they bring to the school — is that it could militate against bad actors who currently infest elite college sports, taking advantage of the fact that the players are impoverished by design. It’s the sort of environment that encourages bad actors to offer kids hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to a particular school and wear a particular brand of sporting equipment.

Today, Addidas learned the hard way that this is still illegal.

Adidas executive James Gatto, consultant Merl Code, and Christian Dawkins, an assistant to an NBA agent, were convicted on all counts of running a scheme to funnel money to recruits and their families to ensure they would sign with schools wearing Adidas equipment. The jury deliberated for 12 hours before dropping the hammer on the trio. They’ll be sentenced in March just in time for the tournament.

The “victims” of this fraud were the basketball programs themselves, a curious theory since the testimony at the trial made abundantly clear that several of these programs were at least tangentially involved in the scheme. But as AUSA Edward Diskant (in the spirit of disclosure, a former associate with me at Lankler Siffert & Wohl) put it to the jury, “The coaches at the universities weren’t allowed to be doing this,” in other words, their complicity didn’t mean the school wasn’t getting defrauded. It’s hard for sports fans to think of landing a premier recruit as a “harm,” but they were putting the programs at risk of sanctions. I mean, what shall it profit a team if it has a consistent double-double guy and loses post-season eligibility?

And there’s more to come in this matter. As ESPN reports:

Two more federal criminal cases involving college basketball corruption are scheduled for trial at U.S. District Court in Manhattan next year. Former Auburn assistant Chuck Person and former NBA referee Rashan Michel are scheduled for trial in February. Person is accused of accepting $91,500 in bribes from a federal cooperating witness to influence Auburn players to sign with certain financial advisers and agents.

Three former assistant coaches — Arizona’s Emanuel “Book” Richardson, Oklahoma State’s Lamont Evans and USC’s Tony Bland — are scheduled for trial in April. They are accused of accepting bribes from Code and Dawkins, who are also defendants in that case.

Today’s verdicts will probably earn each man a couple years in the federal prison system. But if you’re an inmate looking to put together a team in the yard, these guys have a real eye for talent.

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James Gatto, Merl Code and Christian Dawkins found guilty in pay-for-play trial [ESPN]

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

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