Government witness in hoops trial claims to have paid football players at Penn State, Michigan, Northwestern

A significant development surfaced in the college basketball bribery trial on Tuesday, when government witness Marty Blazer claimed to have paid “hundreds to thousands of dollars” to football players at various schools.

Per Adam Zagoria of the New York Times, Blazer admitted to paying players at seven schools from 2000-14, including three B1G programs. The three schools from the B1G mentioned were Michigan, Penn State and Northwestern. Other schools were Pitt, Notre Dame, North Carolina and Alabama.

Blazer, a Pittsburgh financial advisor, made the payments as an offer for players to remain in college as opposed to pursuing the NFL Draft. In return, Blazer would hope those players would retain him as a financial advisor when they turned pro.

Today from the college basketball bribery trial government witness Marty Blazer said between 2010-14 he paid from several hundred to several thousand dollars to FOOTBALL players from:

Pitt
Penn St
Michigan
Notre Dame
Northwestern
UNC
Alabama

— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) April 23, 2019

Perhaps the most significant information surrounded Penn State and former head coach Joe Paterno. According to Matt Norlander of CBS Sports, Blazer alleges that he paid the father of a then-Penn State player Aaron Maybin $10,000 with encouragement from an unnamed Nittany Lion assistant coach.

The arrangement occurred in 2009 and Maybin opted to pursue the NFL Draft anyway. His father then repaid the $10,000, according to Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports.

Blazer testified that — at the encouragement of an unnamed Penn State assistant — he paid $10,000 by check to the father of then-Penn State player Aaron Maybin to convince him to stay in school.

— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) April 23, 2019

Blazer said the player wound up entering 2009 NFL draft anyway and was No. 11 pick overall. Father repaid the $10,000. Old news but an assistant arranging such a deal would be major violation at a program that took pride in complete NCAA compliance …

— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) April 23, 2019

Blazer’s claims would be a major NCAA infraction, though it’s unknown what kind of action would be taken by the organization at this time.