March Madness: Is the Fix In?

College basketball has a long and sordid history of point shaving. While the Black Sox scandal still represents the high water mark in sports corruption, at least as far as we know, college basketball has a commanding lead in the sheer number of big time gambling-related scandals.

The most famous of these scandals came to light in 1951, and involved players from seven different colleges and two national championship teams. The New York area was particularly hard hit, and the basketball programs of most of the teams involved have never recovered. Former national powers, such as CCNY and LIU, faded into basketball oblivion. In fact, the only college program implicated in the scandals of the 1950s that remains a national power is Kentucky.

According to this recent New York Times article, the evidence suggests that point shaving remains a big part of college hoops. According to the article, point shaving appears to be involved in approximately 5% of all college basketball games.

The fact that basketball's old point shaving problem is surfacing again should come as no surprise to anyone. The NCAA's incredible hypocrisy in grabbing billions of dollars for schools while refusing to pay a dime to players creates an atmosphere that's ripe for this kind of scandal.

I've got an idea--let's apply a little Sarbanes-Oxley to the NCAA. How about the next time there's a gambling scandal, why not throw Myles Brand in the butt-hut for a few years? Hey, if Brand's going to get CEO coin, he ought to do CEO time when his organization breaks the law.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to fill out my bracket.