I can't imagine there are any fans, coaches, administrators or athletes who ever believed that surreptitious payments to elite high school players were just rumors. Or, for that matter, cared very much that it was going on.

My question is this. How far down the list of star players do we have to go before we find players who are not getting paid? Is this just limited to five star athletes, or does it go much deeper?

Look at the schools who have been charged so far. If you were making a list of schools who are signing the best players, would these seven schools be at the top of your list? And if the players those schools are signing are getting paid, can we assume the lottery pick players are not?

And given that football drives the athletics bus, can we assume that this is a basketball issue only?

At some point, is it unreasonable to assume that the blue blood schools (and their coaches) who are signing the best players year after year might also be involved?