Seven-and-a-half years ago—91 months, to be exact—Chuck Person was serving as associate head men’s basketball coach for Auburn when he was arrested by FBI agents and charged with accepting $91,500 in cash bribes to steer two Tigers players to an undercover informant posing as an athlete representative.
Since pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery in March 2019, Person has been one of the few targets of the Department of Justice’s controversial college basketball corruption probe to have maintained his silence, declining numerous interview requests from reporters until now.
In a brief telephone call this week with Sportico, a cautious Person spoke publicly about his former team for the first time since he was sentenced, revealing that he plans to attend Auburn’s Sweet 16 game against Michigan in Atlanta on Friday.
“I feel like I had a hand in revitalizing the program,” said Person, who resides in the Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta, Ga.. “We brought in a great bunch of kids, with great talent and great character.”
Auburn, which finished the 2024-25 regular season with 29 wins, earned the No. 1 overall seed to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The Tigers defeated Alabama State and Creighton in the first two rounds, setting up what could be the school’s and head coach Bruce Pearl’s most successful squad ever.
According to Person, he attended an Auburn men’s basketball camp last summer with one of his club team’s players, during which time Pearl extended the invitation for his former assistant to come back to campus this past year for a home basketball game. Person said he ultimately decided he wasn’t quite ready for that, adding, “I still feel some kind of way.”
He declined to elaborate, but noted that he has no ill will toward the school (“I still bleed orange and blue”) or Pearl, who he has spoken to “from time to time” in the seven years since he was fired over the scandal.
An Auburn spokesperson did not respond to an email seeking comment from the school and Pearl.
Person received a 10-year show-cause penalty by the NCAA—effectively banishing him from college coaching for a decade—in addition to the four years probation that was handed down by a U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska, who sympathetically described Person as “charitable, literally to a fault” in his sentience hearing.
Nicknamed “The Rifleman,” Person starred at Auburn during the early 1980s, earning All-American honors while setting the school’s individual scoring record.
He went on to earn the equivalent of $46 million in today’s dollars during a 13-season NBA playing career (1986–1999), but wound up broke by the mid-2010s when he began accepting the bribes. According to his lawyers, Person’s financial troubles owed to a combination of profligate spending and giving, five-figure monthly alimony payments to an ex-wife, bad investments and the scourge of high-interest loans.
Pearl hired Person in 2014, shortly after taking over Auburn following a three-year show-cause penalty he received for lying to NCAA enforcement during his time coaching at Tennessee. Person had previously applied for the Auburn head coaching job in 2010. When bringing him onto his staff, Pearl praised Person’s résumé, describing it as one that “would support him being a head coach at the highest level in this game.”
Person seemed to be trending that way until his arrest in September 2017. He was reportedly being paid $280,000 as Auburn’s top assistant before being fired for cause that November. Despite the cloud of scandal swirling around the Tigers, the team made the NCAA Tournament that season for the first time in 15 years. The following season, the program reached even higher heights, making the Final Four for the first time ever.
Person currently runs an online-degree basketball high school in Alpharetta—CP Next Level Academy—and a grassroots club team, Team Person, which he said just received sponsorship deals with Shaquille O’Neal and Reebok. The prep program finished the 2024-25 season ranked No. 35 nationally by New England Prep Basketball. Several of its players have gotten D-I offers. Last month, he served as an honorary assistant coach for his alma mater, Brantley (Ala.) High School, during its state title run.
This year’s March Madness has provided an abundance of evidence casting doubt on the purpose of the college basketball probe. Rick Pitino, who was fired as Louisville’s head coach in 2017, led St. John’s this year to a No. 2 NCAA tourney seed and first-round victory.
Will Wade, who lost his head coaching job at LSU in the fallout, was officially hired Sunday by NC State, after leading McNeese State to the Round of 32. On Monday, Sean Miller, who faced a brief suspension at Arizona over the scandal, got the top job at Texas after three seasons coaching Xavier.
In October, Sportico profiled Christian Dawkins, the man at the center of the investigation. After serving 18 months in prison for bribery, Dawkins is now representing a number of top college basketball players in NIL deals through his new agency, Seros Partners.
“It shows what happened in 2017 was all a crock of s—t, basically,” Dawkins said in an interview last year, noting the radical deregulation of the NCAA’s bylaws that had occurred since 2021.
In a Sportico story earlier this month, Robert Boone, who served as the lead prosecutor of the DOJ’s so-called Ballerz operation, defended the government’s actions, emphasizing that they were in accordance with the law and have played a crucial role in driving the college sports reforms that have taken place.
While Person’s charges involved activities that would still be prohibited under today’s NCAA rules, one could argue that the current system, which allows players to sign with agents and earn money openly, provides them with little incentive to accept under-the-table bribes from assistant coaches.
Person declined to comment on the case or its disposition, opting instead to keep his first public remarks more optimistic—and less controversial. He said he was “not surprised” by the Tigers’ triumphs in the years since he departed, and would expect it to continue.
“This thing has long legs,” he said.
