Collin Sexton, Alabama Mentioned in Report About Federal Investigation Into College Basketball
At a time when college basketball fans should be talking bubbles and brackets, the sport has it's attention on black markets and extra benefits.
Yahoo Sports released a detailed report just 16 days before Selection Sunday that names multiple current and former players along with a list of schools, and that includes Alabama and freshman Collin Sexton. The report includes expense reports with amounts, names and notes, but Sexton isn't a part of that document. Instead, the report mentions that Sexton and/or his family met or had meals with Christian Dawkins, an associate to the ASM Sports agency at the center of the investigation.
What does it mean for the Crimson Tide? That's still unknown at this point until the investigation is complete and all of the details are out, but the meeting with Dawkins was reported and UA eventually held Sexton out for the first game of the season while his family paid restitution for one meal.
Meanwhile, the report names former players Dennis Smith of NC State, Isaiah Whitehead of Seton Hall, Tim Quarterman of LSU, Diamond Stone of Maryland, Bam Adebayo of Kentucky, and Markelle Fultz of Washington as all having received payments or loans of at least $10,000.
There's plenty of uncertainty about how the NCAA will handle this with so many schools involved, but President Mark Emmert has already responded to the Yahoo report.
“These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America. Simply put, people who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports. They are an affront to all those who play by the rules. Following the Southern District of New York’s indictments last year, the NCAA Board of Governors and I formed the independent Commission on College Basketball, chaired by Condoleezza Rice, to provide recommendations on how to clean up the sport. With these latest allegations, it’s clear this work is more important now than ever. The Board and I are completely committed to making transformational changes to the game and ensuring all involved in college basketball do so with integrity. We also will continue to cooperate with the efforts of federal prosecutors to identify and punish the unscrupulous parties seeking to exploit the system through criminal acts.”
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