A month ago, HBO announced a documentary called The Scheme, which would focus on the Christian Dawkins/Adidas wire fraud/college basketball scandal.

Today, HBO released more details about The Scheme, including a trailer. Notably, Dawkins himself will be in front of the camera during the doc.

The film chronicles the extensive and unprecedented two-year undercover FBI investigation into college basketball corruption that came to a dramatic climax on September 26, 2017, when Adidas executives and assistant coaches at major college programs were arrested in a pay-for-play scheme. While no head coaches were charged, the federal government alleged that an unassuming and unknown 25-year-old man was part of a criminal enterprise that had infiltrated college basketball and funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to steer recruits to prominent athletic programs. The man’s name was Christian Dawkins.

Now, in THE SCHEME, Christian Dawkins faces the camera for the first time and explains in fascinating detail how a kid from Saginaw, Michigan ended up in a hotel suite surrounded by FBI agents with a warrant for his arrest.

Through revelation after revelation, viewers will learn how Dawkins was orchestrating massive cash payments to top high school prospects with the help of Adidas, and, unbeknownst to him, undercover FBI agents. Dawkins will disclose not only the facts of the scheme, but the context of the FBI investigation. Ultimately, guilty verdicts on a range of fraud and bribery charges would leave Dawkins with approximately eighteen months of prison time.

THE SCHEME provides a startling account that is the first instance of the federal government attempting to characterize the participation in NCAA rules violations as federal crimes, triggering enormous potential implications.

And here’s the trailer.

Consider me intrigued. This doc seems like it’ll go a bit deeper into the whole scandal than much of the initial public reporting about it, and given how scattered that reporting was, this will be welcomed.

The Scheme will premiere on Tuesday, March 31st at 9 PM ET.

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.