Apparel companies are heavily involved in elite-level youth basketball, with Nike, Adidas and Under Armour all running their own circuits. The shoe companies also have lucrative sponsorship deals with schools and coaches worth millions of dollars.
When a federal investigation revealed some of the shoe money was being funneled to recruits to influence their choice of schools, the NCAA's hand was forced: It had to deal with the worst-kept secret in college basketball.
As part of its recommendations to clean up corruption, the Commission on College Basketball called on the boards of apparel companies Wednesday to have greater financial transparency and accountability in their investments in "non-scholastic basketball."
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"The apparel companies that actively sponsor non-scholastic basketball are public companies," the report said. "It appears, however, that they do not have effective controls in place in their spending in non-scholastic basketball."