There are a lot of O.J. Mayo’s in college basketball. There are a lot of Ronald Guillory’s, too. And because it’s an arrangement that benefits everybody — including the player, his handlers, agents, college basketball progams and the NCAA — and hurts practically no one, nobody says much.

But the whistle got blown on Mayo and USC today, when a former member of his inner circle spilled the beans to ESPN in a remarkably thorough Outside the Lines report detailing how an agent funneled roughly $200,000 to Guillory, who in turn spent $30,000 on Mayo. The whole arrangement went sour, however, when one of the hangers-on who stood to profit from Mayo’s future NBA millions was pushed aside, prompting him to talk to ESPN and provide numerous receipts and documents. I imagine Guillory’s greed and arrogance ultimately led to Louis Johnson’s airing of grievances.

But forget that, for a minute. This pimping of young basketball stars is the kind of thing that can happen — and is happening, probably at several colleges around the country — when the NBA and the NCAA conspire to force players into college basketball but only for a year.

It’s not fair to blame the kids. They’re just doing what they’ve done all their lives, which is to take whatever is offered to them from the time they enter AAU basketball. It’s probably not even fair to blame the coaches. Tim Floyd is getting paid a lot of money to make the NCAA Tournament and won’t last very long in his job if he doesn’t. I highly doubt he was going to tell O.J. Mayo, “Thanks, but no thanks. Go help some other program win a lot of games.”

The fault primarily lies with agents, who use runners to get their hooks into kids once it’s clear they’re going to become highly-paid professionals.

I’m not sure there is an answer to this, as long as the NBA insists on players going to college for a year and the NCAA insists on not allowing players to share in their remarkable profits. But here’s what I would propose (though it’ll never happen):

1) Set up an NCAA-run loan program, based on the NBA underclassman evaluations that are available for every player. If a player grades out as a first-round pick, they can get, say, a $40,000 loan per year they elect stay in school, which would be paid back at a significant rate of interest once the player makes the NBA. If a player grades out as a second-round pick, they qualify for a $20,000 loan. They can use that money to buy clothes, phones, plane tickets for their family, cars, whatever and won’t be forced to accept money from people like Guillory to pay expenses. Make it completely transparent who is asking for and receiving the loans. If the player never signs an NBA contract, they don’t have to pay back a dime.

2) Go after agents hard for illegal contact with players, either directly or indirectly through runners. I’m not sure what mechanism the NBA could use (perhaps in its collective bargaining agreement with the players union or agent agreements), but a $1 million fine should do the trick. And for good measure, the agent is banned from representing any NBA players or collecting a commission for two years.