WASHINGTON On a summer morning in 2002, in Room 2322 of the Rayburn House Office Building, an economist suggested to members of Congress that perhaps it wasnt the federal governments job to enforce the bylaws of the NCAA.

Congress, at the time, was considering a piece of legislation designed to regulate sports agents, ostensibly to prevent them from exploiting college athletes. Specifically, the measure would codify into law two rules the NCAA already had on the books, making it illegal for a sports agent to provide anything of value, such as gifts, cash or a loan to an athlete or anyone associated with the athlete, and for the agent to fail to disclose in writing that accepting such a gift or signing an agreement with the agent would result in the athletes loss of NCAA eligibility.

The Federal Trade Commission didnt support or oppose the legislation, the economist, Howard Beales, told lawmakers, according to a transcript of the hearing. But it had concerns. Namely, it seemed as if the NCAA rules that might now become federal law were not meant to protect consumers in this case, the athletes but were instead intended to protect the private business in this case, the NCAA that had effectively written them. In plenty of other businesses, Beales noted, providing cash incentives to sign a contract was a perfectly legitimate activity.

It is problematic here, he said that morning, only because of the NCAA rules.

Congress ultimately passed the measure , which did nothing to address the underlying black market economy created by the NCAAs amateurism rules and thus did nothing to stop the supposed problem it sought to address: Agents continued to run rampant, working around the law in a way that posed problems for athletes and coaches looking to stay in lockstep with NCAA rules. It is the worst-kept secret in college sports .

On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, along with the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice, announced that he had indicted 10 people , including four college basketball coaches, a high-ranking executive and another adviser at the sports apparel giant Adidas, and a sports agent on various charges of corruption related to college basketball .

The news was shocking, and the charges were hefty: money laundering, mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy and corruption. Even more surprising, however, was that the government had thrown the weight of its entire legal apparatus behind the governing bodys argument, in essence agreeing to enforce the NCAAs rules on the NCAAs behalf.