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Nike allegedly offered $20k illicit payment to Romeo


madmax

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11 minutes ago, IndyResident16 said:

https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/27390195/avenatti-filing-nike-okd-payments-zion-more

The article I read (first paragraph) suggests that Nike "approved under-the-table payments". I could be wrong, but I think it would have made much more sense had Nike just sponsored an EYBL team in Romeo's name such as Adidas did with Twenty Vision. That's a business entity that can be written off as income and taxed legally vs under the table payments. 

I was going off this tweet in Dan Wetzel's report. Probably a combination of paying to get them to show up to EYBL, and then ultimately paying to get them to Nike schools. 

 

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I would venture to say every Top 10 recruit in every class id offerred something.  You should not assume getting offerred is a sign of guilt by the player or those close to him.  That's unfair if the player did not ask or accept.

Gets back to my point earlier on how critical it is whether this was an unsolicited approach by Nike or whether they were responding to 'requests' by those close to the players.

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47 minutes ago, IUskim said:

Didn’t it say in the article the text messages weren’t actually provided yet and the motion was just stating what they allegedly have on text messages emails etc?

Yeah, I suppose that is truly the case.  "Allegedly", "purportedly", etc. were thrown in there and I guess we have to remember this is ESPN so the reporting should not be taken as verified truth.  I suppose my thoughts were that if these text messages are authentic, it would carry more weight than simple second-hand accusations or recollections of telephone conversations.

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18 minutes ago, BGleas said:

I was going off this tweet in Dan Wetzel's report. Probably a combination of paying to get them to show up to EYBL, and then ultimately paying to get them to Nike schools. 

 

I'm not on Twitter so had not seen that from Wetzel. I do seem to recall a WaPo article written sometime ago that suggested Tim Langford was in a bidding war with the shoe companies to sponsor a team that he could run. Perhaps Adidas was willing to sponsor a team (which is within NCAA rule) while Nike was only content with ensuring Romeo made it to one of their teams. Perhaps the Langford's didn't want to engage in any shenanigans that would question his eligibility. I'm going to go with the latter so I feel better about things. I believe Romeo played for an Under Armour sponsored team the year before and they typically don't get the recognition that EYBL and Adidas Gauntlet do.

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2 minutes ago, 5fouls said:

I would venture to say every Top 10 recruit in every class id offerred something.  You should not assume getting offerred is a sign of guilt by the player or those close to him.  That's unfair if the player did not ask or accept.

Gets back to my point earlier on how critical it is whether this was an unsolicited approach by Nike or whether they were responding to 'requests' by those close to the players.

Agree, and this could be taking place strictly between the shoe companies, players families, and EYBL/AAU type coaches without any knowledge or involvement by college coaches.  However, obviously, because of schools having contracts with shoe companies it probably often DOES include coaches. 

Perhaps one solution to this shady business is to allow players to get money from shoe companies but ban shoe companies from having exclusive deals with NCAA schools.  No money between the schools and the shoe companies and schools purchase apparel/shoes or whatever on the open market.  I'm sure that wouldn't be a perfect solution, but it seems all this stuff that goes on with players before they enroll in college is practically impossible to police.

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17 minutes ago, Zuckerkorn said:

Perhaps one solution to this shady business is to allow players to get money from shoe companies but ban shoe companies from having exclusive deals with NCAA schools.  No money between the schools and the shoe companies and schools purchase apparel/shoes or whatever on the open market

Good luck getting any major school turning down million(s) in sponsorship's from the shoe companies.

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13 minutes ago, IndyResident16 said:

Good luck getting any major school turning down million(s) in sponsorship's from the shoe companies.

I think the NCAA should take over the sponsorship for every school and have just one company sponsoring all of the NCAA.  also the NCAA could make it that if a player plays for one of these shoe companies summer event they would be ineligible  to play in college.

 

Also this kind of thing is why I couldn't care less if IU ever recruited a top 25 player again.  I don't want IU 's name involved with any f this stuff and their are plenty of programs out there that win and have not been involved in this stuff.

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17 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

I think the NCAA should take over the sponsorship for every school and have just one company sponsoring all of the NCAA.  also the NCAA could make it that if a player plays for one of these shoe companies summer event they would be ineligible  to play in college.

 

Also this kind of thing is why I couldn't care less if IU ever recruited a top 25 player again.  I don't want IU 's name involved with any f this stuff and their are plenty of programs out there that win and have not been involved in this stuff.

The NCAA is made up of member schools. The member schools would never agree to it because they wouldn't make nearly as much. Adidas is willing to pay Kansas $20 million a year only because Duke was willing to pay $15 million and vice versa. Eliminating competition would cripple the schools. IU benefits immensely from the money Adidas pays to sponsor their school.

Also, the NCAA would kill their product by making the best players ineligible for playing AAU ball. It would be marketing suicide. If the top 200-250 incoming freshman weren't allowed to play there goes your advertising and TV deals with CBS, ESPN, FOX, etc., you know the money the NCAA makes and redistributes back to member schools to fund scholarship programs.

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7 minutes ago, IndyResident16 said:

The NCAA is made up of member schools. The member schools would never agree to it because they wouldn't make nearly as much. Adidas is willing to pay Kansas $20 million a year only because Duke was willing to pay $15 million and vice versa. Eliminating competition would cripple the schools. IU benefits immensely from the money Adidas pays to sponsor their school.

Also, the NCAA would kill their product by making the best players ineligible for playing AAU ball. It would be marketing suicide. If the top 200-250 incoming freshman weren't allowed to play there goes your advertising and TV deals with CBS, ESPN, FOX, etc., you know the money the NCAA makes and redistributes back to member schools to fund scholarship programs.

I know it won't happen but I though t that would be one way to stop shoe companies paying these players.  Also I think the NCAA should set up their own summer basketball which I think they are doing anyway for the players to still be able to play in the summer.

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19 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

I know it won't happen but I though t that would be one way to stop shoe companies paying these players.  Also I think the NCAA should set up their own summer basketball which I think they are doing anyway for the players to still be able to play in the summer.

These shoe companies are paying players to get a leg up on the competition for when they turn professional. That won't stop if the NCAA bans it's prospective athletes from playing AAU ball.

NCAA setting up it's own summer ball would make parity even worse. Instead of shoe-sponsored AAU teams, imagine if Duke/Kentucky/Kansas were able to set up youth leagues for high schoolers? It'd be even a bigger disadvantage. 

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3 minutes ago, IndyResident16 said:

These shoe companies are paying players to get a leg up on the competition for when they turn professional. That won't stop if the NCAA bans it's prospective athletes from playing AAU ball.

NCAA setting up it's own summer ball would make parity even worse. Instead of shoe-sponsored AAU teams, imagine if Duke/Kentucky/Kansas were able to set up youth leagues for high schoolers? It'd be even a bigger disadvantage. 

Never said anything about individual teams being able to have their own youth leagues but the NCAA running it.  I know right now IU has basketball camps during the summer for high school teams so how would that be much different.

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I’m not overly worried about it. It really does make sense. Romeo was one of the best high school players, so of course shoe companies had at the very least considered paying him and his family. 

It still makes me uneasy. I’d rather just avoid recruiting the top of the top, if it means we can keep our noses clean. 

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1 minute ago, madmax said:

I’m not overly worried about it. It really does make sense. Romeo was one of the best high school players, so of course shoe companies had at the very least considered paying him and his family. 

It still makes me uneasy. I’d rather just avoid recruiting the top of the top, if it means we can keep our noses clean. 

So would I because they are not worth the possible trouble since most likely they will be here for a year.

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20 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

Never said anything about individual teams being able to have their own youth leagues but the NCAA running it.  I know right now IU has basketball camps during the summer for high school teams so how would that be much different.

How would the NCAA regulate a summer league for players who aren't NCAA athletes? Maybe I'm confused by what you meant as if NCAA regulated summer leagues were the alternative to AAU.

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11 minutes ago, IndyResident16 said:

How would the NCAA regulate a summer league for players who aren't NCAA athletes? Maybe I'm confused by what you meant as if NCAA regulated summer leagues were the alternative to AAU.

Yes and I am pretty sure the NCAA is doing this regionally right now.  Have the NCAA set up their own summer basketball circuit for coaches to scout players instead of AAU basketball.  This is where I meant if the players play at the shoe companies summer basketball they would be ineligible to play college basketball because they would have an alternative choice.

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18 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

Yes and I am pretty sure the NCAA is doing this regionally right now.  Have the NCAA set up their own summer basketball circuit for coaches to scout players instead of AAU basketball.  This is where I meant if the players play at the shoe companies summer basketball they would be ineligible to play college basketball because they would have an alternative choice.

I don't know of any such circuit that exists, at least for high school aged kids. Can you share please?

Also, who and how is that being funded? What coach is going to have time to run an NCAA summer league circuit on top of coaching/recruiting his own team? The NCAA operates student-athletes representing member schools. 

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Question:

If i’m A top recruit and I don’t get “paid” why would I not expose this? If I’m Romeo and I don’t buy into this crap, why wouldn’t I announce “Yes. I was offered. I rejected it because I don’t want to be involved in that.” And by doing so throw tons of heat on Nike?

im assuming Romeo wouldn’t want to hurt his chances for when he is a star for endorsements.

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24 minutes ago, IndyResident16 said:

I was just using numericals to show competition. I want to say Adidas was/is paying Louisville $40/mil a year to sponsor their athletic programs. 

If Nike was really arranging for payments to players then I would lay my own money down that Duke knew about it.

You don't land 3 of the top 4 recruits in the country by accident, Zion was rich long before he got drafted.

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5 minutes ago, IndyResident16 said:

I don't know of any such circuit that exists, at least for high school aged kids. Can you share please?

Also, who and how is that being funded? What coach is going to have time to run an NCAA summer league circuit on top of coaching/recruiting his own team? The NCAA operates student-athletes representing member schools. 

I think this is what Scott is talking about.

Look at June.

Not sure if the summer regional camps were instituted this year

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3 minutes ago, IndyResident16 said:

I don't know of any such circuit that exists, at least for high school aged kids. Can you share please?

Also, who and how is that being funded? What coach is going to have time to run an NCAA summer league circuit on top of coaching/recruiting his own team? The NCAA operates student-athletes representing member schools. 

Who said anything about coaches running the circuit because it would just be the same but the NCAA running it and not AAU.

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