I wish I could sit here this morning and tell you how shocked I am by the latest news in college basketball.
Quite frankly, I'd like to be shocked by anything in sports news other than more of the nonsensical spin of the latest round of serve-and-volley happening between supposedly excommunicated NFL fans and the beleaguered, troubled, sadness-ridden anthem protesters.
But this news in college basketball of a federal investigation -- involving bribery, corruption, wire fraud, exploitation and other "fun" allegations involving as many as six different programs -- is as shocking to me as looking out my studio window and seeing sunlight.
I'm just not overwhelmed by these sorts of things anymore.
Here's what we know:
According to a report on ESPN, the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced federal corruption charges against four NCAA assistant basketball coaches on Tuesday.
The three-year FBI probe focused on coaches being paid tens of thousands of dollars to steer NBA-bound players toward sports agents, financial advisers and apparel companies.
The U.S. Attorney is alleging that assistant coaches at Arizona, Auburn, Oklahoma State and USC "took cash bribes" in order to steer elite basketball players toward certain financial advisors and sports agents.
Each of the coaches is charged with bribery conspiracy, solicitation of bribes, honest services fraud conspiracy, honest service fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and Travel Act conspiracy.
The U.S. Department of Justice said each of the coaches faces a maximum sentence of 80 years in prison.
Meantime, in a second set of allegations, authorities say that James Gatto, on behalf of an unnamed "sportswear company," funneled "six-figure payments" to three players, who, in exchange, committed to play for particular college programs affiliated with the company. Gatto is the director of global sports marketing for Adidas.
This set of charges includes a reference to a "public research university located in Kentucky." University of Louisville interim president Gregory Postel confirmed in a statement that Louisville is the school mentioned.
The NCAA -- an organization which rivals only FIFA and perhaps the current occupiers of the White House in terms of corruption and shameful acts of negligence -- has yet to say much of anything other than the standard reply from president Mark Emmert.
"The nature of the charges brought by the federal government are deeply disturbing," Mark Emmert said in a statement. "We have no tolerance whatsoever for this alleged behavior. Coaches hold a unique position of trust with student-athletes and their families, and these bribery allegations, if true, suggest an extraordinary and despicable breach of that trust. We learned of these charges this morning and of course will support the ongoing criminal federal investigation."
I mean, what else was he going to say?
We'll be spending some time breaking this story down with one our NCAA basketball insiders, Greg Peterson from the Vegas Sports Information Network, who'll join us at 9:35am ET on FIRST SPORTS.
One thing we know for sure.... there's still a lot of division about what happened last weekend and earlier this week in the NFL.
Fans are mad at players, players are mad at POTUS, front office types are mad at.... well, that's an interesting one to consider actually.
Who would the owners and executive types around the league have an issue with as it relates to this latest round of anthem protesting?
Certainly not the players.
Absolutely not the fans.
And while they may in fact be angry with POTUS, they'd never admit it publicly.... because, you know, Twitter, also known as "your gossipy Aunt Nancy of the news world".
Could team executives be mad at the league, and commissioner Roger Goodell?
After all, he is the most likely reason the league (and its 32 member teams) finds itself in this situation. They made a deal in 2009 that forever altered the landscape of how these teams handled the anthem.
It didn't make any real waves until 2015 when Arizona Senator John McCain called out the league and several teams for accepting money in exchange for military promotions.
And then there was that one quarterback last year.... he played for San Francisco. You know his name, but apparently typing his name into a blog may cause my computer to implode in a sea of animated red, white and blue streamers all shouting platitudes at me.
Yesterday, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers asked fans to join the team in a show of unity when the Packers host the Chicago Bears prior to the start of their Thursday Night Football game.
Rodgers and most of his Packers teammates linked arms on the sideline before last Sunday's game against the Cincinnati Bengals, though three players -- Martellus Bennett, Lance Kendricks and Kevin King -- sat on the bench.
In a statement released Tuesday night, Packers players said coaches and staff will join them with arms intertwined to represent a coming together of people who want "freedom, equality, tolerance, understanding and justice for those who have been unjustly treated, discriminated against or otherwise treated unfairly."
Yeah, that should go over like a lead balloon.
Meantime, it was announced this week that DirecTV is offering refunds for fans who want to cancel their NFL Sunday Ticket package, if they inform the company that they are doing so due to the recent protests during the national anthem.
Once the season starts, fans usually cannot cancel their subscriptions, but AT&T, which owns DirecTV, decided to change the policy due to the sensitivity of the issue.
The price of the package, which allows fans to get out-of-market games, is about $280.
On a similar note, I've decided that I want to cancel my subscriptions to all my online music streaming services because I have to waste inordinate amounts of time randomly selecting or scrolling through songs which I chose to listen to.
This is an absurd thing to do, and it's only a way for DirecTV to pretend they give a rat's ass about you as a fan.
This is as absurd an idea as if you decided to cancel your Sunday Ticket package because your favorite team's starting quarterback suffered a season-ending injury in week one and you couldn't bear watching that team play without its best player.
Let the buyer beware. You are guaranteed nothing in this world.
Suck it up, buttercup.
In addition to Greg, we'll also talk NFL news w/SB Nation NFL editor Ryan Van Bibber as well as preview this weekend's President's Cup w/Ryan Ballengee of Golf News Net.
Tune in to FIRST SPORTS, across America, weekdays at 9am ET online through the I Heart Radio app at foxsports1340.com or locally on the radio dial at AM1340/93.9FM.
You can call into the show tollfree at (866) 345-8255, or text the show at (505) 330-2327.
You're welcome, America.
#TheMissionToCivilize