Does Absence of Athletic Trainers Constitute Negligence? - Athletic Business

[Illustration by Arnel Reynon]

JACKSONVILLE - It seems like with what we know about the risks inherent in participation in football that this a really silly question to ask. Of course it does. Schools and programs at every level are weighing the economics versus the risks and shamefully are trying to save nickels and dimes while risking the long-term health of kids. 

The fact that the justice system is not stepping in makes the story even more reprehensible. And then we wonder why stories like the loss of life at the University of Maryland's football program happens to say nothing of the overall "toxic culture" that was mentioned there and elsewhere. You can make the argument that all of the toxic stories we hear about in college athletics recently including Michigan State and Penn State earlier, emanate from a system that values nickels and dimes over the health (physical, mental, emotional) of kids. 

Kids are not a commodity. We have to stop treating them as cogs in a machine.

from athleticbusiness.com

https://www.athleticbusiness.com/athlete-safety/does-absence-of-athletic-trainers-constitute-negligence.html

Does Absence of Athletic Trainers Constitute Negligence?

Intercollegiate football is an exciting but violent sport. A school can employ qualified coaches and medical personnel, and use injury waivers to protect itself from liability. However, failure to meet industry standards for student-athlete care will likely bring litigation in the event a player sues over treatment of injuries suffered on the field. This is evident in the ongoing case of Feleccia v. Lackawanna College, 156 A. 3d 1200 – Pa: Superior Court 2017.

The injuries On March 29, 2010, Augustus (Gus) Feleccia and Justin T. Resch participated in a tackling drill during the first day of spring football practice at Lackawanna Junior College in Pennsylvania. Both players were injured during a variation of the Oklahoma drill, during which an offensive player is isolated against a defensive player in a confined space. The offensive player tries to run past the defensive player without being tackled.
The Oklahoma drill is recognized as one of the most violent practice drills, especially the variation used by Lackawanna. This drill emphasizes proper pad level and ball security for the offensive player, and proper block shedding and tackling technique for the defensive player, but often results in a vicious collision.
While involved in this drill, Resch attempted a tackle with his head down and suffered a T-7 vertebral fracture. Normally the football program would have two certified athletic trainers assigned to its practices. However, this session had two non-certified "first responders" instead. Resch was evaluated by a Lackawanna first responder, then was transported by ambulance to a hospital.
The tackling drill continued. Feleccia suffered a "stinger" to his right shoulder during his first tackling attempt. A second Lackawanna first responder told him that he could return to practice once he began feeling better. Feleccia returned, made a tackle with his right shoulder, then suffered a brachial plexus avulsion on his right side.
After the players sued, the trial court entered a summary judgment in favor of the college. This ruling was supported by the fact that the players had signed injury waivers and assumed the risk of injury by participating in the violent sport of football. On appeal, the players asked the court to rule on two issues:
1. Is a Pennsylvania college required to have qualified medical personnel present at intercollegiate athletics events to satisfy a duty of care to the college's student-athletes?
2. Is an exculpatory clause releasing "any and all liability" signed in connection with participation in intercollegiate football enforceable as to negligence?

The issues First, the plaintiffs asked if the college is required to have certified medical personnel at practices. Led by athletic director Kim Mecca, Lackawanna hired Kaitlin Coyne and Alexis Bonisese in August 2009 to serve as certified athletic trainers.
At the time each was hired, neither Coyne nor Bonisese was licensed or credentialed as an athletic trainer. Mecca designated the two as first responders, but they were assigned job responsibilities typically granted to athletic trainers. Moreover, neither Coyne nor Bonisese had earned their athletic training credentials by the time of the athletes' injuries, yet court testimony revealed that Coyne, Bonisese and the football coaching staff represented the first responders as athletic trainers. In addition to being inexperienced and without credentials, the court heard testimony from a former professor and an internship supervisor that expressed concern regarding both Coyne and Bonisese's ability and potential work performance.
The college argued that there is no law in Pennsylvania or standard in the National Junior College Athletic Association requiring that certified athletic trainers be present at practices. The college also contends it did not have sufficient funds to hire qualified athletic trainers. In fact, Lackawanna Junior College president Dr. Ray Angeli said he was unwilling to pay an athletic director a salary higher than that of a first-year professor, but an athletic department budget analysis showed the funds were available.
Next, the plaintiffs questioned the validity of the waiver. To be valid, a waiver must not violate public policy, must be between persons relating entirely to their own private affairs, and each party must be a free bargaining agent. In common terms, a waiver is scrutinized based on its context and its content. The context refers to font size and where the waiver appears — a court may choose not to accept a waiver written in very small type and hidden within a large contract. The content refers to the language itself. The waiver should contain clear language that is easily understood by the participant.
Prior to spring football tryouts, both Feleccia and Resch signed the "Lackawanna College Waiver and Hold Harmless Agreement." Among its provisions, the signer relinquishes the right to sue "for any and all liability." The plaintiffs argued that the language is not clear that Lackawanna's negligent acts are included in the waiver.
Although Resch testified that he understood that the Oklahoma drill might be used during practices, the plaintiffs argued that the requirement to participate in the drill does not include the use of the non-certified first responders. The college still had the duty to use qualified personnel to assess and treat foreseeable injuries to meet a reasonable standard of student-athlete protection, according to the plaintiffs.
Lastly, the plaintiffs argued that the assumption of risk theory does not cover the acts in this case. Generally, the assumption of risk doctrine protects a defendant when a plaintiff encounters a known or obvious danger but voluntarily engages in the activity anyway. The plaintiffs argued that while they may assume the general risks of playing football, they were unaware of Lackawanna's failure to provide qualified athletic trainers. This act could not be considered a known or obvious danger of participating in football.
At the trial court, the defense argued that the assumption of risk doctrine eliminated any duty for the college. The plaintiffs are experienced football players (Feleccia had been playing since age 10, Resch since age six) and acknowledge that football is an inherently dangerous sport in which injuries occur. Neither player testified that they were forced to participate or coerced into participating in the Oklahoma drill.

The outcome The trial court entered a summary judgment for the defense. A summary judgment is appropriate only when the record clearly demonstrates that there are no genuine issues of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
The appellate court rejected that finding and stated that "colleges are expected to put a priority on the health and safety of their students, especially student-athletes engaged in dangerous sports." The summary judgment was overruled, and the case was remanded back to a trial court for a number of reasons.
Although courts generally accept a waiver for an inherently dangerous activity such as football, this specific waiver was rejected. First, the waiver did not state in clear and unambiguous terms that it would excuse Lackawanna's own negligent behavior.
Next, the waiver cannot be used as a shield against claims of recklessness or gross negligence. The Restatement (Second) of Torts (1965) states that recklessness is an unreasonable act that involves a risk of harm to others that is substantially more than negligent behavior. Thus recklessness is more similar to intentional conduct — which is not absolved via a waiver — than ordinary negligence.
Finally, the court stated the college's hiring and use of Coyne and Bonisese as athletic trainers fell below the applicable standard of care. This conduct should be considered gross negligence or recklessness.
Ultimately this court held that the college owed the players, who had engaged in school-sponsored and supervised intercollegiate athletics, a duty of care. This duty requires qualified medical personnel to assess injuries and adequately provide medical treatment when appropriate.
This case demonstrates that colleges owe a duty of care to student-athletes in terms of their safety and protection. Although a valid waiver may offer a school some protection, a court will also analyze the school's behavior and may determine that behavior to be more than simple negligence and thus allow the case to be heard at trial.

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This article originally appeared in the July|August 2018 issue of Athletic Business with the title "Absence of actual athletic trainers may constitute negligence." Athletic Business is a free magazine for professionals in the athletic, fitness and recreation industry. Click here to subscribe.

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Maryland Football Installs Cooling Stations - Athletic Business

JACKSONVILLE - This smacks of closing the barn door after the horses are gone, but it is better than nothing. Next up, the toxic culture.

from athleticbusiness.com
https://www.athleticbusiness.com/athlete-safety/maryland-football-installs-cooling-stations.html

Maryland Football Installs Cooling Stations
COLLEGE PARK — The University of Maryland football program opened a portion of Wednesday's practice to the media for the first time all summer, a noteworthy decision after the school took full responsibility for the death of former player Jordan McNair.
Two "cooling tents" were set up on the campus practice fields where there had been none before, and Matt Canada spoke for the first time as interim head coach, emphasizing how the players have weathered the recent period of turmoil.
"Our practices have been extremely crisp," Canada said. "The focus on our players' health and safety is No. 1. And our players are feeling that and understanding that, and that's our primary focus."
The Terrapins practiced for an hour and 46 minutes Tuesday with two breaks, Canada said, and a similar plan was in place for Wednesday's session. The practice was open to reporters from 12 to 12:30 p.m.
One cooling tent was located on each field, accessible to the offensive and defensive players, respectively. In addition to providing shade from the summer heat, they included fans, ice buckets and coolers with water, Gatorade and snacks. Training staff still drove utility vehicles around to hand Gatorade bottles to players, a practice that had been in place before, a Maryland spokesman said.
The updates and the effort for transparency came after a regrettable five days for the football program. Head coach DJ Durkin and other staffers were placed on leave Saturday after an ESPN investigative report brought light to allegations of excessive verbal abuse and a "toxic culture" under Durkin's tenure.
University officials released preliminary findings from the independent investigation into McNair's death, saying Tuesday that the 19-year-old was not properly treated for the heat illness he experienced before collapsing at a May practice.
Strength and conditioning coach Rick Court, the subject of many abuse claims, also announced his resignation Tuesday. Canada said assistant strength and conditioning coach Mason Baggett has taken charge of the weight room.
Canada first spoke to the Terrapins as their interim coach Saturday at a team meeting.
"I briefly addressed the football team and told them this was a challenging situation, we're all in it together, we're gonna work through it together and we need to consult with each other, talk to each other, lean on each other, be with each other, talk to your families," Canada said. "And whatever they needed from us as a staff, we were there. That was as brief as it was at the time."
The team's culture right now is "awesome," Canada claimed, and players are "loving each other" and still grieving for McNair.
"No matter what else comes out of this conversation, I want that to be echoed, that our players are special, they're doing a great job sticking together, they're excited to play football on Sept. 1 and we as a staff are really excited to get to watch them play," he said.
Canada also said he called Durkin to offer his support "in a situation that's really challenging," but he declined to give more details.
Maryland hired Canada in January after offensive coordinator Walt Bell left to take the same job at Florida State. Canada served as offensive coordinator at six other Division I FBS schools, most recently Louisiana State, before coming to Maryland. But this is his first time serving as head coach of any team an unusual way to take up that mantle.
Canada and athletic director Damon Evans arranged a parents' meeting Saturday, coinciding with a team scrimmage.
"I've talked to a couple parents and I've been very open and honest, which is the only way to be," Canada said. "Everybody's concerns right now are very wide-ranging. ... Our parents and our players want to have a good football season. That's what they're focused on."
Maryland opens its season Sept. 1 against Texas at FedEx Field.
Meanwhile, players and coaches who've associated with or played for Durkin continue to speak up about their experiences, leading to a mixed bag of support and criticism.
Local media at a Florida State practice asked Bell about his experience in College Park. Without directly mentioning Durkin or Maryland's program in his answer, Bell implied it was not a pleasant place to coach.
"I'm excited to be at a place where our kids smile at practice, they have a great time at practice, and they work for a head football coach (Willie Taggart) that kind of instills that family atmosphere in our organization," Bell said.
Cleveland Browns safety Jabrill Peppers played at Michigan when Durkin was the Wolverines' defensive coordinator. Peppers told "The Rich Eisen Show" that he thought Durkin used "extreme" tactics that he didn't like, describing it as "bully coaching."
On the other hand, some former players continue to say they had no problem with Durkin's style, even if it was demanding.
Will Muschamp, who had Durkin on his staff at Florida, was the first to defend the coach by accusing anonymous players cited in the ESPN story of wanting payback for lack of playing time. And Jim Harbaugh, Durkin's boss at Stanford and Michigan, declined to comment on Durkin's style when asked.

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Facility Friday: Rays Stadium Renderings, Audi Field - Athletic Business

JACKSONVILLE - It looks wild, but it's better than the St. Pete mausoleum. This development and the new TV deal the Rays just signed should allow them to compete somewhat, but in that division,either the Sawks or the Yanks have to make a big misstep first and then a team like the Rays or the Jays can pounce.

It's a start. The Rays have shown they can be innovative and do more with less. Hey, somebody should write a book about them.

from athleticbusiness.com
https://www.athleticbusiness.com/facilities/facility-friday-rays-stadium-renderings-audi-field.html

Facility Friday: Rays Stadium Renderings, Audi Field
Jason Scott

The Tampa Bay Rays unveiled renderings of a proposed stadium in Ybor City, Fla. At an estimated cost of $892 million (including the ballpark and related infrastructure), plans call for seating for 28,216, and a unique translucent roof. Kansas City-based firm Populous provided designs for the facility. — Tampa Bay TimesTampa Bay's future ballpark. https://atmlb.com/2L4QDik  #RaysUp— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) 2:26 PM - Jul 10, 2018

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Former Duke Player's Mom: NCAA Like Slavery, Prison - Athletic Business

This is what fuels our modern version of "civil discourse" - rank ignorance and stupid comments. If this fool actually experienced either slavery or prison, instead of just reading about it in textbooks, or hearing about it from pseudo academics, she would have known better than to open her pie hole. 

Four years at Duke for free is like prison? Or slavery? 

In what country? In what universe?  

Your kid was given a winning lottery ticket. Talk to someone was / is actually in jail and see if they make the same tortured analogy. 

from athleticbusiness.com

https://www.athleticbusiness.com/governing-bodies/former-duke-player-s-parent-likens-ncaa-to-slavery-prison-system.html

Former Duke Player's Mom: NCAA Like Slavery, Prison

WASHINGTON — Kylia Carter, the mother of recent Duke basketball player Wendell Carter, unloaded on the NCAA and the current system for big-time college sports on Monday, equating the economic arrangement for athletes to those of slavery and the prison system.

Carter made her remarks during a stunning opening statement as a panelist for a meeting of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. After waiting through remarks of five other speakers, including Saint Joseph's men's basketball coach Phil Martelli and ESPN basketball analyst Jay Bilas, Carter leaned into a microphone and launched into an emotional, personal indictment of a system in which she referenced her own recruitment and career as a player at the University of Mississippi.

She finally came around to comments that were as blunt as anything the Commission has heard since former shoe company representative Sonny Vaccaro basically told college presidents in the early 2000s that they had sold their souls for shoe-and-apparel money.

"The problem that I see is not with the student-athletes, it's not with the coaches or the institutions of higher learning but it's with a system ... where the laborers are the only people that are not being compensated for the work that they do while those in charge receive mighty compensation," she said. "The only two systems where I've known that to be in place are slavery and the prison system. And now I see the NCAA as overseers of a system that is identical to that. So it's difficult for me to sit here and not say that there is a problem that is sickening."

These kinds of issues are part of the reason that, after the meeting, commission co-chair Arne Duncan made a statement in which he said the commission essentially has determined that the NCAA member schools will no longer be capable of making meaningful change without fundamental change to their governance system.

He said the commission is calling for the association to move toward a setup under which the two NCAA groups responsible for overseeing big-time sports — the Board of Governors and the Division I Board of Directors — have a majority of their members be independent from colleges and universities.

The Knight Commission meeting and recommendations come in the wake of a report and recommendations from the Commission on College Basketball, which was chaired by former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. The Rice panel was appointed as a reaction to the latest college basketball scandal, this one involving the steering of players to certain schools in exchange for payments among a variety of parties, including shoe and apparel companies and college basketball assistant coaches.

In an interview after her appearance, Carter said she felt emboldened because many of the Rice Commission's reforms were centered around preservation of much of the NCAA's current model, including its model for compensating athletes.

"You want to reform things, but reform it in a way that allows you to continue doing what you're doing," she said. "That's not reform, and that's what this feels like."

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Study: Youth Tackle Football Linked to CTE Symptoms - Athletic Business

I believe that some day in the future folks will look back and say "What the hell were they thinking subjecting kids to that kind of abuse?"


from AthleticBusiness.com
Study: Youth Tackle Football Linked to CTE Symptoms - Athletic Business:

Copyright 2018 The Florida Times-Union

Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville)

A new study suggests a strong correlation between the age at which some athletes begin playing tackle football and the onset of behavioral and cognitive problems later in life, findings that become significantly more pronounced for those who take up the sport before age 12.

Researchers concluded that for every year younger an athlete begins to play tackle football, he could experience symptoms associated with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy 2 1/2 years earlier. Those who begin playing before age 12 could start experiencing symptoms more than 13 years earlier.

The study was published Monday in the Annals of Neurology journal and was conducted by researchers with the Boston University School of Medicine and the VA Boston Healthcare System, including some of the leading CTE researchers, such as Dr. Ann McKee, Dr. Robert Stern and Dr. Robert Cantu.

The study comprised 246 deceased football players who had donated their brains to the brain bank run by the VA, Boston University and the Concussion Legacy Foundation. Of that group, 211 were diagnosed with CTE.

While the research did not find a "statistically significant" connection between the age of first exposure and the severity of CTE later in life, the study says "youth

exposure to tackle football may reduce resiliency to late life neuropathology."

The researchers warned the results might not be representative of the broader population of football players. It did not include a control group and could suffer from ascertainment bias, meaning families might have been more likely to donate a loved one's brain posthumously if they suspected something was amiss.

The study results were not impacted by the level of play and included those who had played football in high school, college and professionally. Researchers found that even the former players who were not diagnosed with CTE experienced an earlier onset of behavioral and cognitive impairments the earlier they took up the sport, "suggesting that the relationship between younger [age of first exposure] to tackle football and longterm neurobehavioral disturbances may not be specific to CTE," the study says.

While CTE, like most neurodegenerative diseases, cannot currently be diagnosed in a living person, the symptoms surface earlier and become more pronounced as the person ages, often in the form of behavioral and mood issues followed by cognitive impairment.

"Youth exposure to repetitive head impacts in tackle football may reduce one's resiliency to brain diseases later in life, including, but not limited to CTE," McKee, the director of Boston University's CTE Center, said in a statement. "It makes common sense that children, whose brains are rapidly developing, should not be hitting their heads hundreds of times per season."

Research on traumatic brain injuries related to sports is a burgeoning field, particularly among youth athletes. Several recent studies have suggested head impacts before the age of 12 can be more damaging than those suffered by athletes who take up the sport later, though some research hasn't found that age of first exposure is necessarily a contributing factor to cognitive functioning later in life.

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May 1, 2018

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Opinion: FBI Is Clearly Enforcing NCAA Rules - Athletic Business

It seems like they could make a decent antitrust or RICO case here, but those take time, money and resources that will be called elsewhere, at least as far as the FBI goes. Bring in the IRS and it's game over. 

The target should be the apparel companies, who have sullied college and youth sports in basketball and football to a large degree. They built their dynasties by free-riding and taking advantage of the college system, MAKE THEM PAY, NOW!!

from AthleticBusiness.com

Opinion: FBI Is Clearly Enforcing NCAA Rules - Athletic Business:

Copyright 2018 The Salt Lake Tribune
All Rights Reserved

The Salt Lake Tribune

In the forms — similar to those signed by more than 460,000 athletes at NCAA schools each year — both the player and his mother asserted they had no knowledge of any violations of NCAA rules regarding amateurism. Over the years, the NCAA has interpreted amateurism rules to prohibit a long list of benefits for players and families, ranging from duffel bags full of cash and luxury cars to more modest perks, such as gas money and free meals.

When the player's mom signed those forms, she was lying, according to federal prosecutors, who did not identify her or her son in court documents. Just days before, prosecutors allege, the mother had met with an Adidas consultant in a hotel in New York and accepted $30,000 cash — routed through one of Adidas' grass-roots teams — meant to ensure her son enrolled at Kansas, one of Adidas' premier endorsed college programs, and if he made it to the NBA, signed an endorsement deal with the apparel company.

In college basketball circles, this allegation, contained in an indictment charging an Adidas executive with wire fraud for arranging the payment, was the latest sign that the ongoing Justice Department probe of the basketball black market is far from over.

To economists and lawyers familiar with both federal law enforcement and college sports, however, this week's charges brought into sharper focus an aspect of the investigation that has puzzled them for months The FBI and federal prosecutors in New York are trying to put people in prison for paying college athletes and their families.

"I still can't figure out why the FBI is involved with this," said Dan Rascher, a California economist who has consulted for college athletes on lawsuits challenging NCAA rules. "There's literally no problem at all with people being paid for their skills to provide value to an educational institution. Except if the people we're talking about are college athletes."

By making money from her son's talent, and lying about it, prosecutors allege, the mother conspired with Adidas officials to defraud Kansas, which could have been exposed to fines and other sanctions if the NCAA learned of the payments. This theory of fraud, which casts schools as victims because players or their parents have secretly taken money, is rare but has been deployed at least twice before by federal prosecutors in a 1980s case involving a sports agent with ties to the mafia, and a 2000s case involving a convicted cocaine dealer making it rich as an AAU coach.

Six months after the first arrests, however, the FBI and prosecutors in New York have yet to make public any allegations involving mob ties or drug dealers, or even tax evasion, which some legal experts expected would eventually emerge, offering justification for the public money spent.

A spokesman for prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, who are overseeing the investigation, declined to comment.

In the scenario involving the Kansas recruit, according to prosecutors, the fraud occurred when the mother signed that form despite knowing she'd taken money for her son's talents, in violation of NCAArules. The mother, according to court documents, is an unindicted co-conspirator of the Adidas executive.

The victim of this fraud conspiracy, according to prosecutors? Kansas, a school with one of the wealthiest basketball programs in the country, whose coach makes $5 million annually to oversee an amateur basketball team that is regularly one of the star attractions in the Big 12 Conference, which has packaged basketball and football television rights to help generate $371 million in annual revenue, and in the NCAA Tournament, which generates more than $850 million for the NCAA and member schools each year.

The mother was not charged with a crime but, according to experts familiar with federal investigations, likely will be threatened with the prospect of arrest by prosecutors, if she hasn't already, as they seek her testimony against the Adidas officials.

The latest charges, which also involve a recruit whose father allegedly took $40,000 from Adidas to secure his son's commitment to North Carolina State, rest entirely upon the very same NCAA rules that are the subject of a federal antitrust lawsuit in California. Lawyers representing athletes in that case, set for trial in December, are portraying the NCAA and schools as a cartel that colludes to cap the earnings of college athletes at the value of a scholarship, sending hundreds of millions of dollars in excess revenue, collectively, into school coffers and paychecks for coaches and administrators.

The NCAA, on its website, defends amateurism as a "bedrock principle of college athletics." Amateurism rules, the NCAA states, "ensure the students' priority remains on obtaining a quality educational experience and that all of student-athletes are competing equitably."

If the NCAA permitted college athletes to sign endorsement deals with shoe companies, as Olympic organizations do with their athletes, legal experts noted, prosecutors would have been unable to file the wire fraud charges announced this week against Jim Gatto, an Adidas global marketing executive who also faces charges for similar allegations of arranging payments to steer recruits to Miami and Louisville.

"There are no true victims here. It's a derivative crime based on alleged violations of a private, nonprofit entity's internal bylaws," said Don Jackson, an Alabama attorney who has represented athletes in NCAA rules compliance cases. "This would be like someone lying on an application to the 4-H club and getting charged with wire fraud."

Jackson is among many who note even the NCAA has struggled to determine when shoe company money flowing into a youth team is against its rules.

Among those who run grass-roots basketball teams the key to procuring shoe company money has long been clear Get the top high school players. Such a star often can bring his team a shoe company sponsorship, which can run as much as $100,000 or $150,000 per year, to engender the kind of loyalty that will lead the player to choose to play for one of the colleges whose basketball programs are sponsored by the same company and, ultimately, to sign an endorsement deal with the company if he makes it to the NBA. Nike, Adidas and Under Armour are the three dominant spenders in the grass-roots market.

In 2009, Jackson represented Renardo Sidney, a Mississippi State player who drew the NCAA's attention because Reebok had sponsored his grass-roots team and hired his father to a consultant's position. The NCAA ultimately suspended Sidney for a season, ruling, among other violations, that Sidney's father couldn't properly account for money that had flowed into a nonprofit foundation he'd created, connected to the Reebok-sponsored team.

This year, however, the NCAA approved Duke freshman star Marvin Bagley III as eligible, even though the circumstances surrounding his father's relationship with Nike raised eyebrows around grass-roots and college basketball. As reported by the Oregonian last month, Bagley's family was struggling financially a few years ago, shortly before Nike agreed to sponsor Phoenix Phamily, the grass-roots team featuring Bagley III as a player and his father, Marvin Bagley Jr., as coach and team director.

In a 2016 interview with Sports Illustrated, Bagley Jr. — the father, who did not return a request to comment — said the family was relying on the Nike sponsorship and a fledgling apparel company he had created to "make ends meet."

Bagley III attended Duke, one of Nike's premier endorsed college teams, and after one year with the Blue Devils, he declared for the NBA draft and is expected to be among the first players selected. Bagley III has not yet made his shoe endorsement plans public, but he is widely expected to sign with Nike.

Duke basketball officials declined to comment when asked about Bagley's eligibility. The NCAA also declined to comment.

There are significant differences between the details publicly known about Nike's dealings with the Bagleys and the specifics alleged in court documents of Adidas' dealings with representatives of recruits. Nike signed Bagley's team to a publicly announced sponsorship. Adidas executive Gatto is accused of arranging cash handoffs to families of recruits through an Adidas consultant who oversaw several grass-roots teams, and at N.C State, through an assistant coach who has not been identified.

The economic realities displayed by these deals are basically the same though, economists note. Top high school recruits have more financial value — to shoe companies, agents and financial advisors — than NCAA rules currently allow them to earn.

After the first round of arrests last September, the NCAA created a commission, led by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to propose rules changes to college basketball. Unless the commission recommends Olympic-style rules permitting athletes to sign endorsement deals, economists and legal experts doubt it will have a significant impact in reducing these secret dealings that prosecutors in New York believe are defrauding major colleges.

"When you have a system that generates billions of dollars in revenue, and you have an unpaid labor force, you're going to breed a black market," Jackson said. "That's just a fact."

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NBA Figures: Problems Go to NCAA, Youth Level - Athletic Business

NBA Figures: Problems Go to NCAA, Youth Level - Athletic Business:

Copyright 2018 Gannett Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved

USA TODAY

The NBA's power brokers are pushing back against the NCAA.

All this talk about amateurs taking forbidden money or coaches looking to line the pockets of the top prospects, and the conversation always seems to gloss over the central problem: the broken basketball system.

Yahoo Sports reported last week that documents seized by the FBI showed payments made to college players from former agent Andy Miller and his associate Christian Dawkins from ASM Sports.

It's another version of a familiar story. From the AAU system that comes with so many pitfalls to the college game where antiquated rules have remained in place for too long, this goes deeper than the latest FBI probe that sheds light on this institution.

"The NCAA is corrupt, we know that. Sorry, it's going to make headlines, but it's corrupt," LeBron James told reporters Tuesday.

James is the biggest name in the basketball galaxy, but he's not the only one speaking out. USA TODAY spoke with four prominent members of the NBA community to get their views.

Michele Roberts: The trial lawyer was elected as the National Basketball Players Association executive director in July 2014, thus becoming the first woman to head a North American major professional men's sports league union.

Maverick Carter: James' business manager; CEO of Springhill Entertainment and Uninterrupted. Carter grew up with James in Akron, Ohio, attending St. Vincent-St. Mary's High School before playing at Western Michigan (where he received a scholarship) and Akron. He transferred from Western Michigan after the coach who recruited him was fired before he'd arrived but was forced to sit a season by the NCAA because of his transfer. Carter left early to intern at Nike and begin working with James.

Draymond Green: The three-time NBA All-Star and two-time champion from the Golden State Warriors was taken 35th overall out of Michigan State in 2012.

Jalen Rose: The ESPN analyst played 13 NBA seasons after being taken 13th overall out of Michigan in 1994. He was a member of the Fab Five team that was the focus of a six-year FBI investigation relating to illegal payments from booster Ed Martin (while Rose was cleared, four players — most notably Chris Webber — were found to have received significant payments that led to sanctions).

THE NCAA PROBLEM

Roberts: "What's disturbed me about what's happened recently is (that) I don't think it's fair to plaster the name of a player who when he was 18 years old allegedly received some monies from an agent or an agent representative because, No. 1, the problem is not the player. ... The problem is the fact that these players would be even vulnerable to those sorts of gestures. Again, I can't change the NCAA'srules, but I can't help but wonder why it is that an industry — and by "industry" I know I'm using quotes (and) I should be — why a process that produces millions, if not billions of dollars, thinks that the culprit is the kid who makes no money, who helps generate that income, who takes something. What disturbs me is the focus on the players, rather than better focus on the system."

Carter: "I still fancy myself a young African-American man, and I can remember when I was playing high school, played AAU, and then went on to play college — not high-major, but mid-major, Division I. I clearly knew the system was broken then, but I didn't know what to do about it or what to say about it. But as a I grew up and worked at Nike and was a part of LeBron's process, I really understood that the system was broken, and it's broken at the base, the foundation of it, which is youth basketball. ... I've had this conversation with people at the league, all the way up to (Commissioner) Adam (Silver). Adam's job is to run the NBA, but really he's the protector of basketball. And if youth basketball is broken, then that's part of his job, too, because those kids are quickly in his league."

Green: "We've got the NCAA, a billion-dollar industry, and the labor is unpaid. I was talking to our (Warriors) security guy today (Ralph Walker, who was taken in the fifth round by the Phoenix Suns in 1976 and cut soon thereafter), and he was saying like, 'Man, I remember playing college basketball, and I knew they were using me and they were getting what they could get out of me, and I was using them and getting what I could get out of them, because at the end of the day, my parents couldn't afford a college education.' And I was like, 'Hmm, that's understandable.' But in saying that, he's 60-something years old. College basketball wasn't a billion-dollar industry when he was a college athlete, so now that it's a billion-dollar industry (things should change). And not only is it a billion-dollar industry, but athletes are probably more aware and as smart as they've ever been now.

"These kids are learning that (they're) getting screwed. You're giving me a college degree. Great. I am so thankful for my degree. I think it's one of the best accomplishments in my life, to walk across that stage and graduate from Michigan State. ... But in saying that, what you get for a college education doesn't equal near what these kids are bringing to the university. ... That's where the corruption is."

Rose: "The first thing that came to mind for me (with the Yahoo Sports report) was, 'Again?' I wasn't surprised. I wasn't shocked. It wasn't breaking news. It wasn't something that I needed to see at the bottom of the ticker (to know) it existed. I hope that it now leads to the NCAA taking a serious introspective look at itself and understanding that this system is broken."

STARTING WITH THE YOUTH

Carter: "I think the NBA and the teams have to really roll up their sleeves, put together a team, a task force, a committee, and really figure this out, because it's a very complex issue. You have young players, lots of them African Americans, but also not African Americans, who come up through the system as it is today and don't get paid until they maybe make it to the NBA. But everybody else is getting paid along the way. AAU coaches, AAU teams, college coaches, college teams, colleges. So when they do take money, it's only a story because the NCAA has these stupid-ass rules that are so archaic, so you have to fix that whole thing and figure out a way to do it. I own a piece of Liverpool football club, in European soccer, because the clubs have systems all the way down to the youth. They've figured out a way where they don't have to deal with it."

Roberts: "I think it was (last) Christmas, and I was in D.C., and I opened the newspaper and I read about a kid who was being described as the No. 1 fourth-grader in basketball, and I literally fell off the dining room chair. I couldn't imagine that anyone really was about the business of trying to (rank fourth-graders). And I had some conversations, and I've not been focused on youth basketball at that level — I didn't realize the world was. And it scared me, to be honest with you. This kid may or may not be a member of my union 15 years from now, but what scared me was that people were focused on him. ...

"If the only people talking to them are those who are trying to exploit them, then I think all of us are ignoring our responsibilities to the sport."

FINDING THE SOLUTION

Green: "This has been a discussion for years, and if they're not willing to compensate the people who are driving their billion-dollar industry, then there absolutely should be a way to go right around it, to circumvent it, because they're not willing to make a change. (That) means they see nothing wrong or they see something wrong with it but they're not willing to change it because it'll cost them dollars. They don't have to do it.

"You talk to these European guys who I've played with, and they've been making money since they were 15 years old. ... I honestly think (hypothetical NCAA payment to athletes) should be tiered. If you're producing at a level, at a high major college where you're ... bringing in more money, then you probably should be making more money than a guy who's not producing at a low major college."

Rose: "It's more than just actually pay the players. It's 'Pay the players, and/or allow them to profit off their likeness and/or their ability.' And do I think sports that are not profitable should share in the same revenue with the sports that are profitable? No, because we can work for the same company but that don't mean we make the same money. That's not how life works. And this idea that everybody gets a participation trophy is just unrealistic."

Carter: "I think (the G-League) eventually becomes, if you're LeBron James or Kevin Durant or these players who have the ability at 18 ... to clearly play at a pro level, it will now become an alternative. Hey, you can either go play pros or you can get drafted. However you get with the club, and they don't have to put you on the Division I team, or the A-team, yet; they can develop you. Like baseball. But you're getting real pro development when you're ready to play, and it takes a little time, because some guys are physically ready to play in the NBA but mentally it beats you down. ... I think it does become an alternative to the NCAA, absolutely. It should."

Roberts: "The league is doing some things (internally). We've had conversations with the league, because we share their concerns, and they share our concerns. But internally, we have had a focus on elite basketball, on high school basketball — again, assuming that that was soon enough. The same people in my PA who were engaged and in charge with that process have now agreed that we need to go younger, and we're now plotting ways to do that."

'via Blog this'