Former 5-star recruit and WKU commit Mitchell Robinson’s name appeared in a report that revealed FBI documents of an investigation into the NCAA’s “pay-for-play” scheme that was released by Yahoo Sports on Friday morning. 

The FBI first made news public of its investigation into college basketball to expose the payment to student-athletes by coaches, agents and AAU programs in September.

Yahoo Sports obtained and combed through bank records and documents from the FBI’s investigation that revealed the names and schools of the players who received payment from former sports agent Andy Miller, his associate Christian Dawkins and his sports agency ASM Sports. 

The documents revealed information that mentions at least 20 Division I basketball programs and more than 25 players.

Robinson, who infamously left WKU, returned and then left for a final time in August to pursue other opportunities, is briefly mentioned in Yahoo’s report. 

The report says: “According to the documents, Dawkins has dinners listed with plenty of boldface names in the sport – Tom Izzo, ‘Villanova coaches,’…and the family of wayward five-star prospect Mitchell Robinson.” 

While the dollar amount of the dinner is not included, Robinson never participated in NCAA competition for WKU, which means the school should not be at risk of any NCAA violations. Had Robinson stayed in school, the situation would have vastly different implications for both he and WKU. 

Most of the players mentioned in the report seemed to have received payment before they committed to a school, which could exclude a lot of universities from being directly involved with these behaviors. 

As soon as a player who has received “impermissible benefits” participates in NCAA competition, he is subject to being ruled ineligible and the school could face NCAA punishment for violations of rules. An impermissible benefit refers to any form of payment to a student-athlete while he is still enrolled in a university. Even a dinner– no matter the price– can be considered an impermissible benefit. 

It is not yet known what this means for WKU basketball and if the program is involved, but it is worth mentioning considering he did commit to the Hilltoppers and practiced with the team when he was on campus. 

Digital Managing Editor Evan Heichelbech can be reached at 502-415-1817 and [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @evanheich.