John Bacon's new book on Michigan Football will be out Sept 3. Interesting excerpt from Ch 3, "Hard To Beat the Cheaters":
"....
There is little evidence that the NCAA does any more these days. For an earlier book I spent almost every Wednesday night of the 2012 season talking with Louisiana native-turned-Penn State star Mike Mauti, who had turned down money from several Southern schools before accepting Penn State's offer of a scholarship, an education, and an opportunity -- nothing more.
"I know for a fact there are players getting paid [at other schools]," Mauti said. "Guys I know are getting tens of thousands of dollars a year. They give you credit cards until they run out. There's a lot of money involved. One hundred thousand dollars? Over the course of five years? Easily. I was offered money. They don't come out and say they're going to give you this money, but their players know the way things work, and they tell you. It's a different culture out there."
Mauti and I shared the stories we'd heard about coaches channeling money through churches, a practice that few Southern politicians or reporters would dare investigate; offering jobs to the parents in the city or county, not the school; giving recruits credit cards in someone else's name, or cases of casino chips to cash in; and two relatively new tricks, having a booster buy the family's home for far more than market value, and telling players to take their beat-up junkers into a Mercedes dealership, where they receive a high-end "loaner car" while they wait for a replacement part -- which could take years, it turns out.."
"....
There is little evidence that the NCAA does any more these days. For an earlier book I spent almost every Wednesday night of the 2012 season talking with Louisiana native-turned-Penn State star Mike Mauti, who had turned down money from several Southern schools before accepting Penn State's offer of a scholarship, an education, and an opportunity -- nothing more.
"I know for a fact there are players getting paid [at other schools]," Mauti said. "Guys I know are getting tens of thousands of dollars a year. They give you credit cards until they run out. There's a lot of money involved. One hundred thousand dollars? Over the course of five years? Easily. I was offered money. They don't come out and say they're going to give you this money, but their players know the way things work, and they tell you. It's a different culture out there."
Mauti and I shared the stories we'd heard about coaches channeling money through churches, a practice that few Southern politicians or reporters would dare investigate; offering jobs to the parents in the city or county, not the school; giving recruits credit cards in someone else's name, or cases of casino chips to cash in; and two relatively new tricks, having a booster buy the family's home for far more than market value, and telling players to take their beat-up junkers into a Mercedes dealership, where they receive a high-end "loaner car" while they wait for a replacement part -- which could take years, it turns out.."
