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Message: [QUOTE="reedny, post: 2318143, member: 1423"] Otto, these coaches are employees of NFP universities that are signatories to a NFP amateur athletics association. The Universities have lucrative conference contracts, media deals, shoe endorsements, etc., but they are also charitable/educational institutions receiving tax exemptions courtesy of you and me. They benefit from the use of public airwaves. They receive federal funds. And they participate in interstate commerce. In exchange for these benefits, Universities are governed by Title IX (among others). They have to abide by NCAA guidelines, file annual compliance statements with the NCAA and make financial disclosures about receipts and expenditures to the US DOE. They have to ensure that their employees and students abide by NCAA rules. While you are correct that third party (for profit) vendors may not share the same obligations, they are publicly-traded companies that have their own financial, regulatory and tax requirements. And their relationships with NCAA member schools are dependent on the amateur model. This isn't government overreach ... the public has an interest in seeing that vendors in contact with coaches and student athletes avoid fraud, make truthful disclosures and, if required, pay their fair share of taxes. Sports company executives also have to account to their shareholders (not to mention the IRS and SEC) for money they expend. For a recruit and his family, its criminal to claim you made $50,000 when you're hiding a $150,000 payment you received from a basketball school. For a recruiter, it's likely a crime to lie on a document you file with the NCAA if you're hiding payments you made to a player to benefit a vendor that pays you off in secret (to say nothing of all the NCAA rules violations). It's also fraudulent to accept cash to "steer" amateur athletes to certain schools (or shoes) in exchange for personal or institutional gain. You may scoff. But I can guarantee the defendants and their lawyers are taking the charges seriously, along with the rest of the college sports world. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?