How many of the hundreds or thousands of college players or their families that have been paid in the past have been charged with any form of tax fraud based on those payments? You're just pulling stuff out of your ass and you know it.
If you want to go back to the Jalen Rose days, well then Chris Webber also was an inner-city kid and Duke recruited him fairly heavily before he wound up at Michigan. These days, if there is a Duke-caliber player in the inner city he'll get out and end up somewhere else before his sophomore year of high school. They start getting paid before college.
I don’t know who the IRS has gone after or what enforcement methods they’ve used to get the money owed. I bet no athletes file taxes while in high school and college so the statute of limitations never runs on the debt and the interest and penalties compound quickly.
Also, criminal charges from tax fraud are handed out arbitrarily and entertainers, athletes, and celebrities seem to get the brunt of the charges.
Why cheat if you don’t have to? Why sacrifice your character when you’ve got a much bigger payday months away? It doesn’t make any sense.
If you are Phil Greene, sure, take the money. But Zion and Bagley? No way. Schools are allowe to pay their multi-million dollar insurance policies now I believe.