CBI ? it stands for Conflicts of Basketball Interests
April 1st, 2009 by Dwight Jaynes | 20 Comments | Filed in Coaches, College basketball, Oregon State Beavers
By now everyone knows that Oregon State bought its way into that College Basketball Invitational ? at the cost of about $60,000 per home game. But Kerry Eggers has a great column where he details even more interesting info about that Tournament for Losers.
It seems that the CBI is owned by the Gazelle Group, founded by Rick Giles. Well, it just so happens that Giles is OSU Coach Craig Robinson?s agent. They are former college classmates. That might have made it a little easier to get OSU, with that awful record, into the tourney, huh?
But the interesting part is that Robinson?s contract with OSU calls for bonus payments to the coach for post-season wins ? even in tournaments like this one. So not only does Robinson?s agent put Robinson in line for more money by getting his team in the tournament, Giles himself could even be sharing in the loot as the coach?s agent after those wins. Agents, of course, often share in their clients? bonus money.
This, folks, is what college sports is all about.
Tags: CBI, Craig Robinson, Dwight Jaynes, Oregon State Beavers, Rick Giles
