REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - Realistic college basketball fans saw it coming. The iceberg of assumed corruption would eventually come close enough to come to light. But the iceberg that is the FBI investigation into NCAA basketball has exposed some seriously shady dealings behind the scenes. And that makes the thought of this being just the tip of the iceberg very disturbing.

In case you haven't heard, a leading Adidas executive and four college basketball assistant coaches were among 10 men charged with fraud and corruption in using hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to influence NBA-bound players' choices of schools, shoe sponsors and agents. A three-year long investigation also provided enough evidence that the University of Louisville decided to place on leave head basketball coach Rick Pitino - one of the top coaches in the history of the game for former Puerto Rico national team coach - and the school's athletic director Tom Jurich. Alabama's associate athletic director Kobie Baker has also resigned after the school questioned him about being linked to the on-going investigation. The four assistants charged were Auburn's Chuck Person, Lamont Evans of Oklahoma State, Arizona's Emanuel Richardson and Tony Bland of the University of Southern California.

These charges are just the beginning… as the officials said the investigation is still on-going, meaning the iceberg will only get bigger.

The cat is now out of the bag - wire-tapping and taped conversations linking payments to the families of high level players to go to a certain school and/or choose a specific agent.

Sure, college basketball fans have figured something like this was going on for years - if not decades. But the NCAA could do very little about it without subpoena power. Now the FBI is doing the probing - and getting plenty of answers. And those answers will now come much easier - no need for undercover agents. People caught will start talking and cooperating in hopes of reducing their punishment, which will most likely lead to even more illegal conduct being exposed. The U.S. Attorney's Office and FBI even provided a hotline number for people to call with information or to turn themselves in… with the message: It’s better for you to call us than if we call you.

We will see in the coming months just how infested the college basketball game is with this corruption - this true greed for cash from many sides.

There is no totally blameless party in this. Head coaches, assistants, runners, the shoe companies, agents, players and their families - all carry a certain level of blame. Heck even fans, boosters, university officials even should look at themselves in the mirror if they apply pressure on the coaches or players in some regard to succeed. Along with the greed for money, that is another factor in this - the felt necessity to succeed at all costs.

So, how big of an impact with this have on the up-coming NCAA season?

Well, a replacement must be found for Pitino at Louisville - once he is officially let go. That will cause a shift of coaches - which could also see players look to get out of their college commitments. And then there are any further teams who are hit in this investigation.

Other programs will be rocked by this iceberg. It's a near certainty. Now there are reports that Nike officials are being subpoenaed. That may impact some of the basketball programs with Nike affiliation.

Just that distinction - programs with Nike affiliation - is really a major factor in this whole mess as well. Some colleges are signed with Adidas and others with Nike. And still others with Under Armour.

For those who might not know… that means some players cannot play for certain colleges and some colleges cannot go recruit certain players - because they are aligned with different shoe companies.

This is a real thing. This may have cost Croatia the title at the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2015, when Dragan Bender refused to play in the tournament over a shoe dispute. Bender had a deal with Adidas and the Croatian federation is signed with Jordan Brand. Neither side refused to budge and Bender sat out while Croatia lost to the United States in overtime in the Final.

Shoe companies have so much influence on the game, especially at the youth level. Sure there are some good things that come out of that commitment to develop the game. But it is not always good.

We haven't by far seen the last of this story. Again this is just the tip of the iceberg … and it's already a pretty menacing looking iceberg.

David Hein

FIBA

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