You definitely have no evidence "he knew". And you really don't have any evidence that he was purposely naive.
What you do have in increasing amounts is evidence that people around him went to some length to try to conceal information from him. That will be his position in the courtroom, and it's a pretty good one...
This is really interesting stuff to me and I am completely flipping my opinion. He had an assistant in the room when a financial transaction was discussed of $11,500. On the surface that is a problem however; Louisville nor it agent was providing the money. Adidas would provide the money to the AAU program. This is really no different than Nike paying Bagleys dad a boat load of money to run an AAU program. Nike decided where Bagley was going basically the same deal. Adidas would push the player to Louisville. It isn't a violation for Nike, Adidas, Under Armour or whoever to pay an AAU program money. It also isn't a violation for the shoe companies to push players to certain schools. It is a violation for the shoe, AAU or boosters to pay a player. For it to be a violation the school would have to direct the shoe and AAU to pay the player or their family. With Louisville that doesn't appear to be the case or there is nothing on tape where Fair says that money needs to go to the kid.
Key point, the player wasn't the one being paid. The payment was to go to the AAU program.....where is the NCAA violation? Fair heard a conversation that wasn't a NCAA violation. Now the NCAA could say he knew the money would end up in the players hand, but since it never did how can you hold the Univeristy accountable. Fair at the very least he knew it was a slippery slope.
Think about it the system was built to avoid the schools, not the players, from NCAA violations. The shoe companies didn't really care if the player was ruled ineligible, but they had to protect their brand schools. The problem was people started getting greedy, too much money and it was easy to obtain.
The coaches knew the system and knew players were getting paid, but they also knew as long as the coaches and assistant coaches didn't direct people where the money went the school was safe. Nike and Adidas get me players just keep me and my assistants out of the details.
At this point the only schools in trouble are the one's where actual payments to players/families are proven that participated or where assistants or coaches were caught handling or directing payments.
Dan WetzelVerified account@DanWetzel
