FBI Not Cool with College Hoops' Pre-Pro Economy

Damn. Does this mean elite high school basketball players have to go back to being amateurs?

Seems like a buncha high-profile college programs employed coaches who allegedly had a full-service sales funnel in place to lure those kids to their schools:

• Shoe companies and agents would put up the readies;
• Assistant coaches would shuttle the payments to potential one-&-done players as inducements; and
• When the kid declared for the NBA at some point in the future, he'd have a preordained shoe contract and financial representation waiting for him.

This is not the sorta First Four the NCAA considers March Madness:

There will be more.

And don't forget the shoe dudes -- including adidas exec Jim Gatto and Nike rep Merl Code,  who played at Clemson -- along with the financial advisers:

The FBI was tipped to the scheme by another financial adviser who got caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar and turned informant.

That allowed undercover agents to sit in on related negotiations that resulted in the busts.

Kinda.

Odds are these are the dudes who get the first shot at flipping, probably to haul in those big names the FBI really wants.

And then, they won't be so nice.

It's not like this is shocking to anyone paying attention. Apparently, yet again, it just got too blatant.

Anyone who thinks this isn't the latest of a long-running series is just being naïve. It's gonna keep happening until:

• Colleges address the needs of athletes in revenue-producing sports, and
• The NBA -- and even the NFL -- stop looking at colleges as their minor leagues and develop real minor leagues.

The NBA is actually moving in that direction, upgrading the D-League to its G-League:

Like the D-League this is replacing, players can jump to it straight outta high school.

Their next step is to make salaries more attractive so more elite players do.