When the FBI released the findings of its NCAA college basketball fraud and corruption investigations on Sept. 26, 2017, the stated goal was to expose the “dark underbelly of college basketball,” as Joon H. Kim, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said that day. The dark underbelly implicated dozens of individuals: associate head coaches, players, assistant coaches, sneaker executives and parents. Louisville’s Rick Pitino and Arizona’s Sean Miller swallowed up the headlines. Pitino was fired. Miller kept his job. But the main objects of the FBI’s attention were non-household names.
Mostly low-level sneaker employees and advisers.