Clemson Athletics under microscope after FBI's revelation of the wiretap – FITSNews



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Clemson University's men's basketball and football programs are under close scrutiny after the appointment of a Tiger assistant coach at the public hearing in the basketball corruption saga.

Assistant basketball coach Steve Smith appears in the video plays with Christian Dawkins – a former disgraced officer who was convicted in October for paying players – and an undercover agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), according to a CBS Sports writer Matt Norlander.

The video plays were broadcast Thursday in federal court in New York.

According to prosecutors, the wiretapping refers to an attempt to pay the superstar of Duke University Zion Williamson – originally from Spartanburg, S.C. – in the hope that he will come to Clemson.

Williamson finally chose the Blue Devils on the Tigers, playing one season in Durham before declaring himself eligible for the 2019 National Basketball Association (NBA) draft.

During the discussion on paying Williamson, Smith spoke of similar "pay-to-play" agreements involving the Clemson football program – which appeared in Football Football College (CFP) four years in a row and have won the national titles in 2016 and 2018.

"That's why football is so successful – if you do it using Clemson's resources, you can really control everything," he said. "It's a small university town … you can go to a game one night, after the game, you see a guy in a nice suit, you like," wait a minute now. "

Uh-oh …

(Click to see)

(Via: Travis Bell Photography)

Government Witness Marty Blazer – a former financial adviser involved in the #HoopsGate scam – stated that he "understood that wanting (Clemson) boost would give certain things".

Blazer, 49, has already pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud, a head of securities fraud, a lying leader to a government agent and an aggravated identity theft leader. He agreed to go undercover in 2014 in the hope of obtaining the clemency of federal prosecutors.

Earlier this week, Blazer admitted to having paid college football players in the hope of hiring him as a financial adviser.

"I paid them," said Blazer, referring to football players from Alabama, Michigan, our Lady, North Carolina, North West, Penn State and Pittsburgh.

"I found out later that I was not the only one paying these guys," he added.

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(DOMINION ENERGY)

Clemson issued a brief statement in response to the new seismic of the day.

"We are aware of the current evolution in federal courts of one of the assistant coaches of our men's basketball team," said a statement from the school's sports department. "We are taking this case seriously and will proceed immediately to an examination."

The school did not specify immediately which programs he would examine, however.

Our take? Where to start … obviously there is a lot unzip here.

First of all, the content of the wiretap – though unfortunate – does not prove that the Clemson football or men's basketball programs have paid players. But it is (or at least that should be) more than enough to trigger an NCAA inquiry across the Clemson Athletics Department.

Because you know, optics.

Of course, trusting the NCAA to handle such a survey is problematic given its history of hypocritical and politically motivated investigations.

The biggest picture? The ongoing scam of university athletics – and more generally the racket of higher education as a whole. As we have been saying for years, the NCAA is a "subsidized, socialized, and clearly unfair system that penalizes free market interactions."

It must be uprooted – university and sports – and replaced by a system that does not criminalize individuals who receive the salary that the market will support for their skills.

-FitsNouvelles

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