The worst example of this is the recent NCAA shoe company bribery scandal, where shoe companies paid student athletes and their families to attend particular sc

The worst example of this is the recent NCAA shoe company bribery scandal, where shoe companies paid student athletes and their families to attend particular schools sponsored by the companies. In any other industry, delivering money to people who become a part of your organization and generate revenue for it is just employment, and having your sponsors pay them directly is just cutting out the middleman. Only in amateur sports is that considered bribery and an offense that can get a person sent to prison. Kickbacks, of course, are quite different, where a company official has a legal duty to negotiate in good faith in the best interests of their company and not make purchasing decisions based on which vendor gives them the biggest personal cut of the deal. It's hard for me to see the other side of that, how anyone can possibly not understand that that is illegal.