Similar to the ridiculousness of letting North Carolina get away with decades of academic fraud on their way to another NCAA title in 2017, the same thing is happening right now with the Kansas Jayhawks: There’s no way this team should be allowed into March Madness.
To be clear, this is legally way worse than the UNC issue, although it’s certainly different, too: “Kansas’ alleged violations in basketball stem from the FBI’s recent investigation into the sport related to corruption and bribery.” This is the FBI, not an internal probe or some misguided NCAA witch hunt.
Yet here we are in early March, and the Jayhawks are No. 1 in the country—despite the fact everyone knows they’re cheating: “A responsibility charge is also being levied against Hall of Fame coach Bill Self and KU is also charged with a lack of institutional control.”
Just like the Tar Hells, though, it’s all about the money to be made here. Maybe the NCAA will bury the Kansas basketball program after the season is over; maybe it won’t. However, we know nothing will be done right now, because of the cashflow enabled by Jayhawks basketball.
Meanwhile, Kansas remains the favorite to win the NCAA Tournament: BPI calculates an 18.4-percent chance the Jayhawks win in it all, and if it wins, there will just be another asterisk in the record book eventually—like North Carolina’s titles in 2005, 2009, and 2017.
We all know college football is corrupt, but so is college basketball—albeit in a different way. In the end, it all ends up in the same place these days: Not enough people care as long as their pockets remained lined.