Alabama hit with 3 years' probation, fines for hoops bribery & corruption

Alabama men’s basketball team has now joined the list of college programs thrown on probation for bribery or corruption scandals.

Not a great list to join.

Friday, the NCAA Committee on Infractions gave the Crimson Tide three years’ probation after a former associate athletic director accepted bribes to facilitate a meeting between a player’s father and a financial adviser.

ESPN says their sources say the unnamed player is Cleveland Cavaliers guard Collin Sexton.

The NCAA also fined Alabama $5,000 plus 1 percent of its operating budget for men’s basketball and issued a 10-year show-cause order for former associate athletic director Kobie Baker. He resigned in September 2017 after the university officially approached him about involvement in the bribery scheme.

If that timeline is correct, this incident happened before Sexton had even played a second of college basketball.

 And according to the COI, Alabama “learned the identity of the father of the student-athlete and began proactively working to secure the student athlete’s reinstatement before the 2017-18 season… As a result of Alabama’s actions, the student-athlete never competed while ineligible.”

The allegations came from a federal investigation into bribes and other corruption in college basketball led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

I would say I’m completely shocked by this, but I’m not.

Just thinking about the sex-for-pay scandal involving Louisville men’s basketball recruits a few years ago, the Alabama news is not surprising. Alabama’s scandal was going on around the time the NCAA decided to ban Louisville’s program for two-years.

I mean, and I thought Louisville’s probation served as a warning for the rest of college basketball.

I guess not for Alabama.

It just makes you wonder how many programs are going out of their way to do favors for guys who haven’t even played for them knowing they are violating NCAA policy?

Probably a lot.

A prior version of this story mistakingly reported Alabama had received a 3-year ban.