Surprise, surprise, its not just college basketball entangled in a massive bribery scandal. I mean you’d have to figure football would have to make its way into the mix sooner or later.
Monday, a second of three trials began in which the United States Government has accused key figures in college basketball of fraud and bribery. Christian Dawkins and former Adidas consultant Merl Code who were convicted of charges in the first trial which included bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, and Travel Act conspiracy once again returned Monday as defendants.
However the biggest news came Tuesday when Martin Blazer, a Pittsburgh financial advisor who agreed to testify after pleading guilty to a number of SEC violations and fraud charges made allegations that he paid college football players between 2000 and 2014 in an effort to buy their business as financial clients once they left the college ranks.
But these players Blazer sent bribes to weren’t from some mid-major schools. According to Blazer, Alabama, Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Penn State, Pitt and UNC were all schools who had players that were in contact with the former Pittsburgh financial advisor for bribery payments during their college stints.
Payments reportedly ranged anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars and although Blazer didn’t mention any names, in some instances it wasn’t hard to connect the dots in terms of who may have benefitted.
Blazer did make mention of the 2009 draft, the No. 11 overall pick and the New York Giants’ first-round selection out of North Carolina. Drawing back on that information reveals the No. 11 pick by the Buffalo Bills as former Penn State defensive end Aaron Maybin with the Giants taking Tar Heel wide receiver Hakeem Nicks.
And as far as Maybin goes, Blazer further testified that back in 2009 a NFL client of his had a father who was an assistant with Penn State. That NFL player was more than likely Larry Johnson and his father, Larry Johnson Sr. was indeed an assistant coach with the Nittany Lions. Anyways, Johnson Sr. informed Blazer to make a $10,000 payment to a father of the PSU player to try and get that player to pass on the Draft and stay another year at school. That player was presumably Maybin who still opted to enter the Draft early while his father reportedly paid the money back.
Again given the fucked up financial situation the NCAA bestows upon the student athletes shit like this is the least shocking thing you continue to hear about in amateur sports. Nonetheless given the NCAA needing to swipe their piece of the pie and punishing those who don’t willingly submit to their sanctioned monopoly on college sports, it’ll be interesting to see what else Blazer spills and the potential ramifications this could have on programs like Michigan and Alabama.
