Many of the biggest names in College Basketball are now being linked to the federal investigation into corruption in the NCAA. Yahoo Sports has obtained financial documents that the FBI has collected which detail payments made to college athletes while they were still in school. The payments were funneled through ASM Sports, an agency that represents a number of NBA players.
The Yahoo report says that the investigation could have significant "NCAA ramifications" for some of the most storied basketball programs including Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, Michigan State, Texas and USC. The documents reveal what Yahoo calls "an underground recruiting operation" which could create rules issues for at least 20 Division 1 basketball programs.
One of the players who was paid by ASM agent Andy Miller according to the FBI records was former Xavier University point guard Edmond Sumner. Documents reveal he and or his father received $7000 while still in school at X. Xavier head coach Chris Mack was asked for a comment on the story from Yahoo and released the following statement.
“I have no relationship with Andy Miller or any of his associates. He plays no role in the recruitment of potential student athletes on Xavier’s behalf. Beyond that, our staff has never created a path for him to foster a relationship with any of our student-athletes while enrolled at Xavier. Any suggestion that I or anyone on my staff utilized Andy Miller to provide even the slightest of financial benefits to a Xavier student-athlete is grossly misinformed. We are prepared to cooperate with any and all investigations at any level.”