FEDERAL AGENTS have arrested dozens in illegal sports gambling schemes (Shutterstock).

Sorry to be Right Dept. I hate to say I told you so …. actually, I know I enjoy it, truth to tell. In the past I’ve warned that many factors – payment to college athletics for the use of their name, image or likeness, the revolving door of “the portal” and the boom in gambling would lead to scandal, and … well, here it is.

On Thursday, it was reported that the feds were prosecuting 20 people – including 15 former college basketball players – for their role in what’s called a “betting scheme.”
In the indictment, it’s alleged that “fixers” paid college players from $10,000 to $30,000 per game. More scandal will surely follow.

With the sports gambling biz growing exponentially, – worth about $11 billion annually now – we are certain to hear demands for tougher laws and enforcement.
Well, good luck with that.

College hoops players are – despite their posturing – essentially kids. Many of them are from modest or poor backgrounds. You dangle $10,000 in front of them, and it’s a rare 19-year-old who will refuse to miss the occasional fourth-quarter free throw at the right time.

And why not? They idolize the pros who hop from team to team via free agency, almost always pursuing a bigger, better [money] deal. Chances are the college player at the elite levels were offered – and took – some sort of shady endorsement to come to Somewhere Tech in the first place.

“Amateur” status in the Big Sports – football, basketball, primarily – is a relic of the past. So much money changes hands so young the whole system has been polluted.
So maybe we need to rethink the way we regard big-time sports. Maybe – in the interests of transparency – we should rebrand college hoops as “entertainment basketball.” That might be more honest than what we have now.