Upon hearing of the corruption charges leveled against NCAA basketball coaches, longtime analyst Dick Vitale shared his dismay in a video shared to Instagram.
“I was crushed today, crushed, when I heard the story today with the FBI making charges against four assistant coaches. People involved, agents, shoe companies, etc, illegally. But let’s say this,” Vitale said. “They’re certainly innocent until proven guilty. But having the FBI involved and not the NCAA is a different story. These are criminal charges. And what breaks my heart — there’s a cespool that’s existing in college basketball and at the scholastic level.”
Indeed, Vitale is right. The accused are innocent until proven guilty.
But even if they somehow are all innocent, it’s hard to dispute the overall point that college basketball (and college sports, in general) has long been a cespool that needs to be cleaned up.
None of the previous approaches that the NCAA has tried to clean up the game have brought any long-term success. So, while a Czar seems like a dramatic approach, it’s clear that if this is going to be cleaned up, a dramatic solution will be required.