Rick Barnes responds to the college basketball FBI probe, which included two former Texas players

A report from Yahoo Sports has shaken the college basketball world today. The report named 20 schools and at least 25 players that had been received money of some sort over the past several years. Powerhouse schools like Michigan State, Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky were all named in the report.

Texas was also a part of the report, with two players mentioned. Eric Davis Jr. (2015-current) and Prince Ibeh (2012-2016) were each named. That would obviously open up the possibility of Barnes being connected to the probe.

However, Barnes he believes he’s in the clear.

“I haven’t read the report,” Barnes said on Friday afternoon. “What I was told today by one of my graduate-assistants was that that happened, the money that those guys received, happened after we left. That’s all I know.”

“I’m not surprised by anything that happens. I’ve been doing this a long time. I’m not surprised by any of it. I don’t know what all is in the report — we could sit here and talk about it for days if we wanted to.”

The scandal involves both current and former players and it is currently unclear what type of penalties will come from this. The NCAA has already responded to the Yahoo report.

These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America. Simply put, people who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports. They are an affront to all those who play by the rules. Following the Southern District of New York’s indictments last year, the NCAA Board of Governors and I formed the independent Commission on College Basketball, chaired by Condoleezza Rice, to provide recommendations on how to clean up the sport. With these latest allegations, it’s clear this work is more important now than ever. The Board and I are completely committed to making transformational changes to the game and ensuring all involved in college basketball do so with integrity. We also will continue to cooperate with the efforts of federal prosecutors to identify and punish the unscrupulous parties seeking to exploit the system through criminal acts.”

For now, it doesn’t appear that Tennessee is going to get caught up in this. But it could have huge implications around the sport in the coming months.